Se 


OQ LAK A SRN AN 
QQ. AO 
AK OO AS 
AC 


\ 


\ 
QQ 
SN WY 
RQ We 
SSS \ x 
AN XX SN 
\ . 


S 
SON WN 


WS AN \X NN 
SS VQ RQ 
WS 


SS 
NY 

LAAN 
AN 


WSS 
\N 
WY 














LIFE OF HENRY B. WRIGHT 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/lifeofhenryowrigdOstew 








Henry B. Wright 







<n OF PR! Mee 
aA 29 1906 yA 

a 
Leo OgicaL sew 





LIFE OF 
HENRY B. RIGHT 


Y 
GEORGE Gy ait JR. 


Foreword by 
JOHN R. MOTT 


ASSOCIATION PRESS 


New York: 847 Mapison AVENUE 
1925 


Copyright, 1925, by 
The International Committee of 
The Young Men’s Christian Associations 


Printed in the United States of America by 
J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK 


To 
JOSEPHINE L. H. WRIGHT 


ry 
WN os 


as re 


th a) 


Lt ‘ 


Mg Bout, i ri RUAN 


bad? ny aie 


PALS Da 
‘ 
' » 
“A 
7 ,'% | 


abs 
WAY 
ately 


He 
ee 
Die 





FOREWORD 


IOGRAPHY, of all forms of writing, has exerted the 
B most highly multiplying influence. Recent years have 
witnessed the production of more biographical works 
than possibly any preceding period. Unfortunately, a ma- 
jority of them are poorly done and lack any vital message. 
In the Life of Henry Wright, of Yale, we have brought before 
us a personality who with kindling power touched, compre- 
hended, and profoundly influenced life at many points. 
What contribution does the life of this man of reality 
make to the men of our day? With naturalness, attractive- 
ness, and persuasiveness he illustrates the possibilities of the 
life of a layman dominated by unselfish ambition. Attention 
is fixed on those attitudes of mind and will, those mental and 
spiritual processes and practices, and those vitalizing and 
dynamic truths which underlie strong character, reasonable 
faith, and largest influence for good. We see religion actually 
related to life—to college life, to family life, to the problems 
of intellectual life, to the demands of professional, social, and 
national life. Henry Wright embodied his religion. We are 
taken into the laboratory of religious experience and observe 
a man with intellectual thoroughness and honesty formulating, 
accepting, and then with real heroism applying unerring guid- 
ing principles to his own life and relationships. Happily 
we live in a day when men are summoned to consider Jesus’ 
way of life, and when they have come in greater numbers than 
ever to realize the tremendous implications of the Christian 
Gospel. In this dynamic biography we trace the career of a 
man who resolutely, consistently, and sacrificially made the 
touchstone of his life and the controlling factor in every choice 
or decision, What is the mind of Christ? What is the will 
of God. ‘To him these two questions were synonymous. 
vu 


Vill Foreword 


The most fascinating thing about Henry Wright—re- 
vealed on almost every page of this record—was his marvelous 
capacity for friendship. Whether in school or college, whether 
in the old home village of Oakham or in the industrial centers, 
whether among undergraduates and professors or among sol- 
diers and officers in training camps, whether in circles of 
intimate acquaintances or among strangers at home or abroad, 
he was constantly throwing down strands of friendliness be- 
tween his own and other hearts. We think of no man who 
excelled him in this vital respect. To use his own phrase, he 
became in truth “an expert in friendship.” 

His friendships were built around the deepest things of 
life. This explains why and how he became one of the wisest 
and most fruitful evangelists of his generation. Wherever he 
happened to be, young men and boys sought him out for 
private interviews. ‘The places where he held converse with 
them became veritable confessionals. The many Bible classes 
and discussion groups which he led at Yale and in other 
colleges, at institutes and conferences, among village boys or 
among industrial workers in factory towns, or in war days in 
the camps, constituted most instructive examples of group 
evangelism. It is not too much to say that he did as much 
as any man of our day to evolve a true science of winning men 
to the Christian life. In a letter he wrote me several years 
ago he said, “There is nothing in the work for men and boys 
without evangelism tied up to it and decision for Christ as 
its objective.” To a remarkable degree he became to the 
youth of his day what Henry Drummond was to an earlier 
generation. 

We are told in these pages that Henry Wright was largely 
influenced by John Todd’s “Student’s Manual,” a book now 
out of print, but one which was a formative factor in the lives 
of many men. We venture to express the belief that this 
biography in the hands of students and school boys of today 
will exert even greater quickening power inasmuch as it speaks 
by example as well as by precept. Moreover, it has a much 


Foreword 1X 


needed message for teachers in universities, colleges, and 
schools—that profession of all professions most productive in 
point of influence. Is it not true that with all too many pro- 
fessors and teachers the chief concern is that of developing 
subjects rather than developing men? With Henry Wright 
it was a passion, exhibited both in his own life and example 
as a teacher and in his constant advocacy, to raise up men of 
Christian aim and activity as teachers. No Young Men’s 
Christian Association worker, no Bible-class teacher, and no 
other religious worker, whether layman or clergyman, who 
desires to do a truly creative work and to exert an influence 
which will never die, can afford to miss the spell of this trans- 
parent and communicative life. 

The author, George Stewart, has done his work well. With 
rare penetration and comprehending sympathy—possessed 
only by one who intimately knew and deeply loved—he has 
brought before us not simply a faithful portrait but a living, 
working, triumphant, contagious personality. 


JouHn R. Mort. 
New York, N. Y. 
August 1, 1925. 


UAHA Bie 
wat ugh nT ; ‘ 
ME is At 

Dal 


ey 


i 


S n 


7 


= 
oo 


abeae 


“~< 





CHAPTER 


I 

fi 
jg 
IV 
V 
VI 
VII 


XI 


CONTENTS 


Tue Man WE KNEw 
Earuy Lire . 
YaLE—STUDENT Days . 


As Y.M.C.A. SecreTARY IN YALE COLLEGE 


As TEACHER IN YALE COLLEGE AND WINNER OF SOULS . 


IN THE COLLEGES AND AT CONFERENCES 
Tue Oakuam STORY 

Home Shae 

PLATTSBURG . 

Came DerveENs 


Tuer Diviniry ScHoout PROFESSORSHIP 


PAGE 


130 
150 
173 


200 


AY aft 
‘ach 


ie 
fe 


ae ii 
i un i in By 


ny : 

DEO i 

Ne Le eu aie aa 
ae ¥ Mi if 


) 
"/ 

r, ¥ 
i 


Ni a Bae i 
' +} 
avila Ki 


i vai wy iW 
¥! e Aaa i ‘ 


wy) Ao 
vai 


Wty fh) aA 


‘HN iW 
ony v5 f 


$5 


an 





ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facsimile Pages from “The Campaign of Platea” . . . . 14-15 
Facsimile Page from “The Recovery of a Lost Roman Tragedy” 36 
Manuscript Notes on Ancient History. . . . . . . . 89-40 
Facsimile of Letter to a Yale-in-China Missionary . . . . 42 


Paceimile Page oly Incarnation (of) L roth a. ata teed et OG 
PBcoMMUGrOLeLeULery edi ay Mrs vail sl iteuhg cy tai lib sis «5c aeeiay rete oso 
punday / rogram, Camp) Devens, Masse) 2. (a) ).) fe ieee eo 
MBCA ler Or ECULCHimia cama Mit alin nuvi amr Galetti hatte fet ReNe a AH Uap 


ve vail’ , 
SEB, 
ry a Mae \ 


ras 1 

we pcr nee 
ean Hf 
}) 


; th Prk ts 2 
5.) iy 2 ie 
A rae 





ACKNOWLEDGMENT 


The portrayal of personality and character is one of the 
most difficult forms of writing. In biography the writer seeks 
to interpret the elusive qualities and to discover sources of 
power. In this he is hampered by his own experience and his 
own knowledge. ‘This volume owes more to the generous help 
of Professor Wright’s family and friends than it does to the 
author. It is the work of many hearts and hands. I am in- 
debted especially to Miss Alice Wright and Mrs. Josephine 
L. H. Wright, the sister and the wife of Professor Wright, for 
reading the manuscript and devoting long periods of time to 
improving the text. Their names should appear on the title 
page. Dean Charles R. Brown, Professor Benjamin Wisner 
Bacon, Dr. John R. Mott, Professor Douglas Clyde MacIn- 
tosh, Professor Kenneth Scott Latourette, Rev. and Mrs. Ray- 
mond B. Culver and Ernest L. Hayward have read the text 
and have given invaluable suggestions. It is submitted to the 
public and to the friends of Henry Wright as a memorial of 
his undying love and devotion, a faulty human effort to set 
forth the radiance and the power of an endless life. 


G. S., JR. 


ae a 
ia 
I he ; 


ic rio 


i 
“* 


; 
ih 


” 
7%> 
Hh 
m 


Lai 
Ni ei Oye (ty 
i te Ti’ , 
i yi Ye 
vip Me al 
‘ 


¥ 


Rte | ‘ i 
Rta tee Vn ey T fasts 


a MAN, 
y 4 i py by 
ey ' : 
ar ie 4 a 
t fi 
ick & by aie a iNew ated 
i NO te EL LR 
[ yey i KA fa te nlget 





LIFE OF HENRY B. WRIGHT 


CHAPTER I 
THE MAN WE KNEW 


If, in the paths of the world, 

Stones might have wounded thy feet, 

Toil or dejection have tried 

Thy spirit, of that we saw 

Nothing—to us thou wast still 

Cheerful, and helpful, and firm! 

Therefore to thee it was given 

Many to save with thyself; 

And, at the end of thy day, 

O, faithful shepherd! to come 

Bringing thy sheep in thy hand. 
—MartrHew ArNoxp. 


ENRY WRIGHT was, by appointment of the Yale 
Corporation, in succession a tutor in Greek and Latin, 
an assistant professor of Ancient History, and a 
professor of Christian Methods in Yale University. Not in 
these aspects, however, would I introduce him, but rather as 
one who for twenty-four years was the strongest influence 
for Christian living of any man of his day among the under- 
graduates of Yale. 
His influence for good was due first to the fact that he was 
a man of complete consecration. Every man who knew him, 
from the president of the university to the last janitor and 
policeman, knew that he was a man of a prior allegiance. 
D. L. Moody’s biographer tells us that on the occasion when 
the great evangelist heard the words, “The world has yet to 


see what God will do with and for and through and in and 
1 


2 Life of Henry B. Wright 


by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him,” he 
thought to himself, “He said a man. He did not say a great 
man, nor a learned man, nor a rich man, nor a wise man, nor 
an eloquent man, nor a smart man. I am a man and it lies 
within the man himself whether he will or will not make that 
entire and full consecration. I will try my utmost to be that 
man.” That Henry Wright had in like manner consecrated 
himself completely to work for Christ was plain to all who 
came in touch with him. And in addition to this he had the 
genius of making religion attractive, and clean living more 
desirable than audacity and indiscretion. 

Not only students but men from all ranks of life realized 
that here was a man who could be trusted to understand and 
help in trouble and perplexity. They came to him with their 
problems and made him their father confessor—farmers, 
scientists, ex-convicts, soldiers, students, college janitors, busi- 
ness men. No demands were made before he gave his friend- 
ship. ‘You know Jesus took twelve men without college 
training,” he wrote to a friend, “and taught them, and they 
went out and made a new world.” Men, rough-hewn, were his 
chief interest, with their marks and scars upon them. Among 
his friends were men with blisters and paint upon their hands, 
and black finger-nails smashed by hammers. His mail was 
always heavy with letters asking his advice in real or imagined 
dilemmas. Answering such letters and meeting men for per- 
sonal talks took large amounts of time and effort, but to do 
this was his chief joy. His short, unstilted letters glowing 
with friendliness and spiritual fire found their way to the 
remotest corners of the earth. A few months before his death 
he issued from his study after two hours’ steady writing with 
a bundle of letters in his hand, remarking, “I have seventeen 
of them here.” Any man at Yale was welcome to his office or 
to his house and could be sure of a quiet interview. Almost 
literally he employed the phrase, “Every man who knocks at 
my door is sent of God.” He often remarked, “Man’s inter- 
ruptions are God’s opportunities.” 


The Man We Knew 3 


One of the secrets of his power over the hearts of men was 
his willingness to share his experience and ideas. ‘How was 
it that men came to know of the temptation of Jesus?” he 
asked a group. ‘‘Because He told them. He shared His life 
with them.” Bible and discussion classes were made vivid and 
interesting because they were illustrated with stories of his 
own experience when face to face with acute problems. In 
these quiet hours he often told the men at New Haven or in 
the Army of his defeats and triumphs, of answers to prayer, 
of unfulfilled hopes. He revealed his life like an open book, 
with a total absence of self-consciousness, not as showing his 
own treasured possessions, but as if he were wholly detached 
from his words, his deeds, himself. This gift of self-revelation 
had something of the frankness of a love letter and was a 
constant source of power. It broke down all walls of division 
and created that atmosphere of genuine understanding in 
which alone men can reveal the secrets of their hearts. 

Men loved him because he gave to them abundantly of all 
he had to give—time, thought, affection, money, and some- 
times personal care. The unselfishness with which he and his 
wife gave up their quarters to students who were ill, paid debts 
of friends in need, and contributed sacrificially to many 
Christian enterprises was an illuminating example to many 
who had less ample ideas of generosity. The number of 
colored and foreign students who counted them as friends re- 
vealed the breadth of their interests and affection. The stead- 
fastness with which Henry Wright continued to pour out his 
devotion on apparently unresponsive men ran true to the de- 
scription of love in Holy Writ—it suffered long and was 
kind, it was not easily provoked, it hoped all things. The 
sheer creative power of his affection produced the likeness of 
its hope in other human hearts. A veteran newspaper man 
said of him: 


We shall never know his like again—he walked among us 
and was in the flesh. Hero worship, which I resent, should have 
little place in religious work; we should love and honor and 


4 Life of Henry B. Wright 


thank God for true leaders, as the anti-slavery group did for 
Garrison and Phillips, but our homage should be almost unspoken, 
felt rather than expressed; living is too serious a business for 
earnest men to stop to cheer poor mortals. But you cannot 
make too clear that Henry was the nearest to Jesus that our 
generation has known. 


He believed that a complete surrender and an unquestion- 
ing obedience to the will of God was the only source of real 
power in a man’s life and the only way in which his heart 
could find satisfaction and peace. He believed this so abso- 
lutely that it was the underlying message in all his Bible-study 
courses, in all his public addresses, in all his personal inter- 
views. He was constantly presenting the claims of Christ 
to men, for he was a born evangelist, but his method was so 
kindly and his solicitous affection for the man with whom he 
was working so apparent, that all were touched and none could 
take offense, even if they could not accept his teachings. 

When men came to him with problems to be solved, he 
would listen thoughtfully, his dark eyes filled with dignified 
concern, quickly lighting up with sympathy when the narra- 
tion of events became difficult or embarrassing for his visitors. 
He suffered and groped with his friends for solutions to their 
difficulties, but he was as eager before a vexed moral tangle 
as the scientist in unraveling one of the mysteries of nature. 
Once when he was cleaning up a pile of rubbish in closing up 
his Oakham house at the end of the summer, he exclaimed, ‘“‘I 
love to clean up situations. There is great satisfaction in 
bringing cleanness out of a mess.” At another time he wrote 
to a friend who was in trouble, ‘Every man loves a scrap. 
I love to give the devil a solar plexus blow.” 

His solution for most problems was not an easy one. Once 
he quoted Henry Ward Beecher to a graduate student 
troubled about the amount of work necessary to clean up a 
certain situation: 


Religion means work. Religion means work in a dirty world. 
Religion means peril; blows given, but blows taken as well. Re- 


The Man We Knew 5 


ligion means transformation. The world is to be cleaned by 
somebody, and you are not called of God if you are ashamed to 
scour and scrub. 


One ethical principle which stood out in his teachings and 
in his work of evangelism was that restitution should be made 
for past wrongs as far as that was humanly possible. He 
pointed out that if wrong-doing had been against an in- 
dividual, recompense should be made to the sufferer individ- 
ually; if an offense had been committed against several per- 
sons collectively, an appropriate restitution should be made 
to the group. The necessity of acting upon such teaching 
regarding sin, retribution, and reconciliation caused some to 
turn away, but those who understood the nature of moral law 
and the importance of finality in dealing with transgression. 
never ceased to thank him. Honesty was the condition prece- 
dent in his code for greater spiritual power. At Yale and in 
the Army and in the dozens of student conferences that he 
attended, there were many men under his teaching who re- 
stored that which had been taken dishonestly, and experienced 
spiritual renewal. Diplomas were returned, lies were recti- 
fied, money was paid to its rightful owners. No Puritan in 
old New England was more uncompromising in the face of 
injustice or moral turpitude. But the iron discipline of his 
nature was tempered by rich, abundant, understanding love. 
Men were arrested by his rugged honesty, and bound to him by 
his overflowing compassion. 

Such was the friend we knew. In the pages which follow 
an attempt is made to paint a portrait of a very human saint 
and to let that picture make its own appeal. 


CHAPTER II 
EARLY LIFE 


We are all nobly born; fortunate those who know it; 
blessed those who remember. 
—Rosert Lovis STEVENSON 


T takes more than one generation to make a consummate 
individual, and the life that leaps upon the world like 
a cataract is often fed from some remote and lonely tarn 
of which the world never hears the name.” ‘Thus spoke George 
Adam Smith of one of the great souls of a generation just 
passed. The mind and heart of Henry Wright came from 
no lonely tarn but did reveal the abundant stream of New 
England moral earnestness which was their source. It would 
have been strange if his immediate forbears, disciplined 
teachers and scholars, had not communicated to him a tradi- 
tion of accuracy in scholarship coupled with ideals of per- 
sonal sacrifice and dedication to the public service. From his 
parents he received rich gifts of ability, character, and 
spiritual vision. Henry Parks Wright, his father, was a well- 
known educator, for twenty-five years Dean of Yale College; 
his mother, Martha Elizabeth Burt, a woman of unusual in- 
tellect and lovable character, had received a sound classical 
training in a day when such an education for women was 
almost unknown. 

At the time of Henry’s birth, on January 29, 1877, his 
father was a professor of Latin at Yale. Professor Wright 
was a graduate of that institution, having taken his degree in 
1868 with a rank in scholarship so high that it established a 
record which remained unbroken for twenty-five years. He 
was the first Dean of Yale College, the position being created 
by President Porter in 1884, and held that office till, in 1909, 
he had reached the age at which, by act of the Corporation, 

6 


Early Life 7 


all officers of the University are retired. As Dean of Yale, 
Professor Wright had a high reputation as an administrator, 
and he was respected and beloved by the students themselves. 
He was a keen judge of character. Students found difficulty 
in lying to him, so impressed were they by his reputation for 
an almost omniscient insight. . In the judgments which he 
passed on young men’s problems he often recognized, the stern 
necessity of regeneration by pain, for he had a deep under- 
standing of human weakness, but he combined in a rare man- 
ner the qualities of justice and mercy. A student was asked 
once, ‘‘How is it that you are all so fond of the Dean, when 
he is such a strict disciplinarian?” and the answer was given, 
**We know we deserve whatever he gives us.” 

The household in which Henry Burt Wright grew to 
manhood represented Puritanism at its best. The Christian 
religion and its teachings in regard to conduct were the foun- 
dations on which life was built. Daily private devotions were 
never omitted, nor grace at table, nor the church services on 
Sunday at Battell Chapel. Cultural pursuits were encour- 
aged, but no work was done on the Sabbath Day. In sum- 
mer vacation the Dean often taught Sunday school and he 
took part regularly in the prayer meetings in the little 
church in Oakham. When his children were small, he was 
accustomed to open the big family Bible on Sundays and read 
the Old Testament stories. Mrs. Wright made a practice 
of instructing them in the Bible from both the Old and the 
New Testament. Quiet conversations with the younger mem- 
bers of the family upon conduct prepared them for what they 
were to meet in mature life. Henry and his brother Alfred at 
the proper time were informed about a young man’s tempta- 
tions and how to meet them. Old-fashioned virtues of obedi- 
ence, honesty, and respect for authority were emphasized. 
Punishment was meted out in due proportion, but the children 
were never left with a feeling of resentment, “but cleansed 
and regenerated,” as one of them since remarked. Neither 
the Dean nor his wife had confidence in education divorced 


8 Life of Henry B. Wright 


from discipline. Great achievement could be expected from 
the children of such parents. 

Although the heads of the household were faithful in 
church observances and practices, religion was never forced 
upon the children, but was made a vital part of their life, the 
object of their unquestioning, unceasing and enthusiastic de- 
votion. Ushered thus naturally and joyously into the 
Christian life, Henry, with a brother and sister, united with 
the Church of Christ in Yale College on February 2, 1894. 

All the children began their studies at home, the Dean 
instructing the young family in Latin and mathematics, his 
wife carrying them forward in grammar school subjects. 
Scholarship, according to the Dean’s ideas, depended not only 
on keenness of mind, but even more on a habit of thoroughness, 
and he never accepted from his children work that was not 
painstakingly done. Henry began the study of Latin at an 
early age and had read both Cesar and Cicero before he 
entered high school. 

The chief and almost the only playmates of the Wright 
children were the children of Professor Thomas Day Seymour, 
and those of the missionary, Robert A. Hume, of India. With 
these they formed societies to raise money for charitable pur- 
poses, produced plays and entertainments, made collections 
of stamps and stones and butterflies, and had altogether a very 
happy childhood. 

Summers were spent in Oakham, where the children played 
in the fields and fished in the ponds. Picnic suppers on high 
hills, long rides, and explorations for Indian relics delighted 
the heart of eager youth. During the month of September, 
until the Dean took up his duties at Yale, the Wrights sent 
their children to Oakham village school—a pleasant experience 
for the city-bred youngsters during the years when they were 
tutored by their parents in New Haven. 

Henry entered the New Haven high school at the begin- 
ning of the second year of the course. Here he formed many 
firm friendships. That the moral earnestness which was char- 


Early Life 9 


acteristic of him even at this early age did not shut him off 
in any way from the social life of the class is shown by the 
fact that the only fraternity, Gamma Delta Psi, elected him 
to membership. One who knew him well in high school said: 


He would never compromise his principles in the smallest 
detail. He was a leader in the class both intellectually and 
socially. I remember that he and Herbert Fisher were fellow- 
editors on the high school paper, the Crescent. They wrote a 
play together called “A World’s Fair Comedy of Errors,” which 
was acted before a high school audience and highly approved. 
He was also a member of the Webster Debating Club and took 
part in at least one public debate. He was chairman of the Class 
Day Committee at graduation and had the Scientific Essay at 
the graduating exercises. 


His high school principal remarked of him: “He seemed 
always to have had with me a place apart among those whom 
it has been a high privilege to teach.” 

Another one of his high school teachers observed : 


I recall the first day that he came into my classes in the Hill- 
house High School. He was so noble in his bearing and so 
scholarly in his work in Greek that he was always an inspiring 
influence in my life. 


Herbert Fisher, a classmate in Hillhouse High School said: 


I was one of those who were fortunate enough to have enjoyed 
much good fellowship with Henry. He was as good then as he 
always remained. He was more spiritually natured than other 
boys, but there must be something preservative in that, for he 
did not seem to outgrow the boyhood of school life, and he was 
always what Mr. Brown called him—an evangelist without con- 
scious effort. It was so natural for him to choose always the 
better way whenever the paths divided that it became more diffi- 
cult for any one who knew him to choose the worse way. What 
better evangelism could there be? 


Years in high school quickly fled and in September of 1894 
he entered Yale to claim those shining rewards which college 
holds for keen minds and courageous hearts. 


CHAPTER III 
YALE—STUDENT DAYS 


Mother of men, grown strong in giving, 
Honor to them, thy lights have led; 

Rich in the toil of thousands living, 
Proud of the deeds of thousands dead. 

We who have felt thy power and known thee, 
We in whose work thy gifts avail, 

High in our hearts enshrined, enthrone thee, 
Mother of men, old Yale. 


Spirit of Youth, alive, unchanging, 
Under whose feet the years are cast— 
Heir to an ageless empire, ranging 
Over the future and the past: 
Thee, whom our fathers loved before us, 
Thee, whom our sons unborn shall hail, 
Praise we today in sturdy chorus, 
Mother of men, old Yale. 


—Brian Hooker, Yale ’02. 


ALE had always been a part of Henry Wright’s life. 
Having been reared in the shadow of her ancient halls, 
he early gave her his whole-hearted allegiance. 

fall of 1894 found him matriculated in the University where 
he spent the months of term time in undergraduate and gradu- 


ate study until June of 1903. 


The preparation in the classics which he had received at 
home under Dean Wright fitted him for a record of achieve- 
ment in a day when Greek and Latin occupied a larger place 
in the course of study than they do now. In Freshman year 
he was awarded the Woolsey Scholarship and also a first 
Berkeley Premium. The Lucius F. Robinson Latin Prize fell 


10 


Yale—Student Days Bs 


to him in Sophomore year, and during the following winter 
he won the first Winthrop Prize. In his third year in college 
he spoke at the Junior Exhibition, and received a Ten Eyck 
Prize. Professor Charles Sears Baldwin of Columbia Uni- 
versity, one of his Yale teachers and later a colleague on the 
Yale Faculty, said of him: 


Henry was one of my first Yale students, and gave me even 
as a pupil—much more later as a friend—that response which is 
a teacher’s dearest reward. His handwriting, which I turned up 
a few days ago, was firmly expressive of that integrity which 
steadied and heartened his associates. 


Notable qualities of self-denial and self-discipline were 
evident in him even in undergraduate days. In later years 
Henry often told men in Bible-study groups and in personal 
interviews that he attributed much of his success as a student 
to an ancient volume which had fallen into his father’s hands 
before he came to Yale in 1864. It was called the “‘Student’s 
Manual,” and its author was John Todd, a preacher in 
Jonathan Edwards’ church at Northampton. Todd was a 
mixture of Puritan and Spartan, the kind of man who always 
chooses the most difficult method when there are alternatives. 
Henry Wright based his method of study on the exacting plan 
laid down in this book, which called for the careful scheduling 
of time, self-denial in regard to amusements, and unremitting 
labor, as the prerequisites of success. He was willing to 
undergo the severest discipline in order to equip himself ade- 
quately for his life’s work. According to “Todd’s Manual”: 


Nothing is so much coveted by a young man as the reputation 
of being a genius; and many seem to feel that the want of patience 
for laborious application and deep research is such a mark of 
genius as cannot be mistaken. . . . You may have a good mind, 
a sound judgment, or a vivid imagination, or a wide reach of 
thought and of views; but believe me, you probably are not a 
genius, and can never become distinguished without severe appli- 
cation. Hence, all that you ever have must be the result of 


12 Life of Henry B. Wright 


labor—hard, untiring labor. You have friends to cheer you on; 
you have books and teachers to aid you and multitudes of helps, 
but after all, disciplining and educating your mind must be 
your own work. 

Set it down as a fact, to which there are no exceptions, that 
we must labor for all that we have, and that nothing is worth 
possessing or offering to others, which costs us nothing. Gilbert 
Wakefield tells us that he wrote his own memoirs (a large octavo) 
in six or eight days. It cost him nothing; and, which is very 
natural, it is worth nothing. You might yawn scores of such 
books into existence, but who would be the wiser or the better? 
We all like gold, but dread the digging. The cat loves the 
fish, but will not wade to catch them:—amat ptsces, sed non vult 
tingere plantas... . 

The first and great object of education is to discipline the 
mind. It is naturally, like the colt, wild and ungoverned. .. . 

Make it the first object to be able to fix and hold your atten- 
tion upon your studies. He who can do this, has mastered many 
and great difficulties; and he who cannot do it, will in vain look 
for success in any department of study. ... Why has that 
Latin or Greek word so puzzled you to remember, that you have 
to look for it in your dictionary some ten or a dozen times? 
And why do you now look at it as a stranger, whose name you 
ought to know, but which you cannot recall? Because you have 
not yet acquired fully the power of fixing your attention. ... 

Patience is a virtue kindred to attention, and without it the 
mind cannot be said to be disciplined. . . . Did not Patrick 
Henry burst upon the world at once, and at once exhibit the 
strength of a giant? If he did, he is no specimen of ordinary 
minds, and no man has a right to presume upon any thing more 
than an intellect of ordinary dimensions, as his own. What mul- 
titudes of men lie still, and never lift the pen, because the time 
is not come! When they come out, it must be in a “great book,” 
a splendid address, or some great effort. The tree must not be 
allowed to grow by inches; no, at once the sapling must be loaded 
with the fruit of the tree of three score years. Alas! trees planted 
and watered by such expectations will never be more than 
dwarfs. . 

The great instrument of affecting the world is the mind: 


Yale—Student Days 13 


and no instrument is so decidedly and continually improved by 
exercise and use, as the mind. Many seem to feel as if it were 
not safe to put forth all their powers at one effort. You must 
reserve your strength for great occasions, but give him the spur 
on occasions of great emergency. This might be well, were the 
mind, in any aspect like the bones and muscles of the horse. 
Some, when they are contriving to see how little mental effort 
will answer, and how far and wide a few feeble thoughts may be 
spread, seem more like students than at any other time—as if 
it were dangerous to task the mind too often, lest her stores be 
exhausted, or her faculties become weakened. The bow may be 
but half bent, lest it be overstrained, and lose its power. But 
you need have no such fears. You may call upon your mind, 
today, for its highest efforts, and stretch it to the utmost of 
your power, and you have done yourself a kindness. The mind 
will be all the better for it. Tomorrow you may do it again; 
and each time it will answer more readily to your calls. 


Such spiritual milk for intellectual babes was bound to re- 
sult in a hardy character. 

A part of Henry’s preparation for daily classroom work 
was done in the early morning from half-past four until eight 
o’clock. At this period he would seclude himself in his small 
bedroom, shut the door, and concentrate. Thursday and 
Saturday evenings of Senior year were spent at his Senior 
society, Skull and Bones, until after midnight. On Friday 
evenings he made a practice of retiring at half-past seven 
o’clock in order to be up at four-thirty on Saturday for study. 

His love for the classics led him to specialize in these sub- 
jects during his college course. As he looked back in later 
life on these early years, he felt that he owed a deep debt of 
gratitude for stimulus and inspiration to Professor Berna- 
dotte Perrin of the Greek Department. Stirring to the mind, 
the imagination, and the soul, he told us, were the hours spent 
under the inspired tutelage of this master-mind. He wrote: 


I have never forgotten that first fall term, and the hush that 
used to fall over the lecture room when, now and then, to quicken 









18 The Campaign of Plataea 





otus. Several authors whose names are significant in the 
chronological order of the extant evidence, assume no 
further importance when traced back to their sources, being 
simply repositories of earlier testimony and contributing 
neither variant, accretion nor inferential addition to the 
tradition. Finally, if the evidence be compared with that 
for Marathon as collected by Macan, there are several 
important differences. We possess the entire account of 
Ephorus-Diodorus for Plataea, while the account for Mara- 
thon in that author is fragmentary. The references to 
Plataea in the Orators, in Aristotle and in Nepos are meagre 
and general. There is not a single reference in the 
comedies of Aristophanes to the campaign. 

Aside from the direct and restorable testimonies in the 
existing records, there is another body of evidence not 
to-day accessible, but none the less a force to.be reckoned 
with in an attempt to reconstruct the successive stages 
through which the tradition passed. There are certain 
writers of whom not even fragments relating to Plataea 
remain, to whom we can with reasonable assurance assign 
a place in the development of the literary tradition of the 
campaign.? For example, although we do not possess a 




















*Xenophon, Aeneas Tacticus, Aristotle, Isocrates, Dicaearchus, 
Cicero, Diodorus, Polyaenus, Athenaeus, Helladius, Theon, Photius, 
Palatine Anthology, and all lexicographers and scholiasts except 
Schol. Ael. Arist., Vol. 3, p. 191 (Dind.). 

Evidence of value concerning Plataea probably existed in the 
following lost works: ; 

(a) Charon of Lampsacus, Persica, composed in the first half of 
the fifth century. 

(b) Phrynichus, Phoenician Women, produced in 476 B.C. This 
drama dealt with the battle of Salamis and exalted the services of 
Themistocles. It undoubtedly had some reference to Plataea, cer- 
tainly to the motives of the king’s retreat (Grote, p. 138 n. 1). 

(c) Aeschylus, Glaucus Potnieus and Prometheus Pyrcaeus, pro- 
duced in 472 B.C. The first of these plays may have dealt with 
Plataea. Wecklein connects the second with the Euchidas incident 
in Plutarch, Aristides 20 (Teuffel-Wecklein, Aesch. Pers., pp. 39-40). 

(d) Stesimbrotus of Thasos wrote a slanderous pamphlet at 
Athens about 431 B.C., which was directed especially against 
















Facsimile Page from Henry Wright’s Thesis for Doctor of Philosophy, 
The Campaign of Plataea 


14 


The Campaign of Plataea 19 


single fragment of Hellanicus bearing on Plataea we cart 
safely infer that he touched upon the battle, inasmuch.as 
he discussed with some detail certain phases of the battle 
of Salamis, and other existing fragments prove that his 
work extended as far down as the Peloponnesian War. 
What the specific influence of these’writers upon the tradi- 
tion was, cannot now of course be ascertained. But in a 
thorough study of the campaign, the fact that it may have 
been of weight must not be overlooked. 

In the introductory chapter an attempt was made. to 
show the unfairness of taking the account of Herodotus 
as it stands as the starting point and frame-work for a 
discussion of the campaign. In justice to Sparta it was 
insisted that we start from documents which preceded the 
bitterness of the Peloponnesian War.? A review of the 
extant testimonies at once suggests a difficulty. Five at 
the most of these remain—the serpent-column fragment, 


Themistocles and Pericles. The Periclean tinge of the Herodotean 
narrative may have been heightened by this pamphlet. 

(e) Hellanicus wrote annalistic records of Athens during the 
Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ estimate of his review of the 
Pentekontaétia (Thuc. 1. 97) is probably correct for the Persian 
War history which he is known to have recorded (see above). 

(f) Choerilus of Samos wrote in hexameter the story of Athens’ 
part in the Persian Wars during the last half of the fifth century. 
Tradition ascribes to him great success with the poem, hence it was 
probably intensely Athenian. Niebuhr (p. 372) regards this poem 
as a chief source of Herodotus. 

(g) Ion of Chios, prominent at Athens during the age of Pericles 
and the Archidamian War, recorded the conversations of the great 
men of his day. His influence is possible in one or two personal 
anecdotes preserved in the tradition. | 

(h) Old Athenian comedy outside of Aristophanes, possibly 
Chionides and Pherecrates (Teuffel-Wecklein, Aesch. Pers., p. 38) 
may have touched upon the battle. 

(i) The Atthides and Periegetes are probably responsible for much 
late material. Aside from those mentioned by Plutarch, however, 
it is impossible to be more definite. 

*Cf. Plut., Mor. 869 A. 

*I cannot agree with Rudolph (p. 7) that ‘no writer before Herod- 
otus has described the battle through whom we can control him.’ 


Facsimile Page from Henry Wright’s Thesis for Doctor of Philosophy, 
The Campaign of Plataea 
15 


16 Life of Henry B. Wright 


and inspire our earnest but faltering efforts, Professor Perrin 
would gather up the results of the hour’s work with his own 
translation, which was in itself an adequate interpretation. 
First there would come a reverent, dignified pause, and then, as 
we sat enraptured, the lines of the “Prometheus Bound” would 
fall upon our ears with a pathos in their majestic beauty and 
a manliness in their scornful defiance which only he could have 
interpreted to us who was himself warrior and poet of the truth. 
It was by that course in the Attic Drama, with its four plays 
by the four great playwrights, A’schylus, Sophocles, Euripides, 
and Aristophanes—moral sublimity, artistic perfection, human 
sympathy, matchless wit—following one another in their histor- 
ical sequence, that Professor Perrin will be longest remembered 
by the majority of recent graduates of Yale. For eleven suc- 
cessive years he poured forth out of his abundance into the 
vacuity of his successive Sophomore divisions, until each year 
the great thoughts that were his became in some measure theirs 
also, and they began to love Greece and to long to know more 
about her. Neither the greater familiarity with the subject 
matter which the repetition of the same course year after year 
(the three tragedies only varying) brought to him, nor the many 
calls of committee work upon his time and strength, ever led 
him to give to a succeeding class anything ‘short of his best. 
And when each recitation was finished with the stamp of com- 
pleteness upon it, we all instinctively knew that we had been in 
the presence of one who had not begrudged us the personal 
sacrifice of letting power go forth from him, and who recognized 
as fundamental in his creed that the cost of all real teaching is 


life. 


Fraternities and athletics occupied a large place in student 
life then, as now. Henry was taken into Delta Kappa Epsilon, 
and on Tap Day in May of 1897 he was elected to Skull and 
Bones. ‘The comradeship which he found in fraternity and 
senior society was one of the richest of his undergraduate 
experiences. Election of new members was often a cause of 
great grief to him. For two decades he battled for a more 
ethical standard, frequently facing defeat. The general posi- 
tion which he held on fraternities was that men must learn to 
measure up to standards all through life. There are hurdles 


Yale—Student Days 17 


to be jumped, and college is a first-rate place to practice one’s 
abilities. Self-selected social groups, if ethically elected, could 
be effective units for the conservation of valuable tradition and 
noble purpose. The fact that secret societies were exclusive 
bodies, he never blinked. But he felt that men should be 
selected always and solely for their outstanding excellencies of 
mind, heart, and character, never for social prestige or 
wealth, or because brothers had preceded them in the Society. 

The religious life of his class and that of the college were 
matters of deep concern to him from the beginning of his 
career at Yale. He was a member of Ninety-eight’s Freshman 
Religious Committee together with Enoch Bell, M. J. Dodge, 
Herbert Gallaudet, E. B. King, T. S. McLane, Mandeville 
Mullally, J. S. Rogers, Forsyth Wickes, and A. B. Williams. 
These men held office until the beginning of Sophomore year, 
when Gallaudet, Williams, Wright, and David Twichell were 
elected permanent class deacons. During Sophomore year 
Wright and Wickes conducted the Freshman Bible Class, 
which averaged over thirty-five men in attendance throughout 
the year. 

The chairmanship of the Bible-study Committee fell to 
Henry in Junior year and he carried through effectively a 
large program of classes. Among other class leaders were 
Henry Sloane Coffin, E. T. Ware, Hiram Bingham, Forsyth 
Wickes, W. F. B. Berger, Dwight H. Day, N. C. Holland, G. 
B. Rich, Jr., F. W. Cochrane, W. H. Sallmon, Herbert D. 
Gallaudet, A. B. Williams, and Professor G. M. Duncan. The 
average weekly attendance at all these classes was two hundred 
and thirty. In Senior year Henry was president of the 
Christian Association. 

During his undergraduate years Henry Wright had lived 
the life of an earnest, faithful student, giving his college work 
precedence over all other activities. His reward came at the 
close of Senior year, when it was found that he was on the 
Philosophical Oration list and stood second in his class in 
scholarship. His only other outstanding interest in college 
had been the Dwight Hall work. Yet when, in Senior year, 


18 Life of Henry B. Wright 


his classmates put on record in the class book their estimates 
of one another, it was discovered that there were few mem- 
bers of Yale °98 who had won more admiration and respect 
than this earnest, lovable fellow, who had followed not at all 
the paths which are wont to lead to popularity. The vote for 
the man most to be admired was, in order: E. C. Perkins, cap- 
tain of the track team; J. O. Rodgers, football captain; A. B. 
Williams, and Henry Wright. For the man who had done the 
most for Yale the class gave J. O. Rodgers first place, E. C. 
Perkins second, and Henry Wright third. The class secre- 
taryship was also given to him. 

A crisis occurred shortly after his graduation from Yale 
College which was a determining factor throughout his life. 
He attended the Northfield Student Conference in June with 
the Yale delegation and there heard the evangelist Dwight L. 
Moody, who was then at the height of his power. On one occa- 
sion after an address in the auditorium Mr. Moody announced 
an after-meeting in Stone Hall. A little reluctantly Henry 
went in, after the room was thronged with students. He said: 


I was afraid that I should be asked to go as a foreign mission- 
ary, but I went down. There, seated in a large armchair at one 
end of the room, was the greatest human I have ever known, 
Dwight L. Moody. He spoke to us simply and briefly about the 
issues of life, using John 7:17 as his theme: “If any man 
willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it 
be of God, or whether I speak from myself.” There in the quiet, 
without any one knowing what was going on, I gave myself to 
God, my whole mind, heart, and body; and I meant it. 


It was the initial dedication, a prior allegiance. He came 
to test all things by it, his life work, his course of study, his 
marriage, his advice to others, his gifts—all were measured 
by this primary loyalty. There is no doubt that the secret 
of his signal power with men from first to last was his initial 
dedication at Northfield, which clarified, simplified, and uni- 
fied life for him. 


CHAPTER IV 


YALE—AS SECRETARY OF THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION 


“When manhood totters, and success wrestles with honor, I 
am haunted by the memories of gentle, firm and strong men—: 
old teachers and college-mates who never lost the vision of virtue 
and culture, and in my darkest hour their shadowing hands seem 
to beckon me upward.”—Amos P. Wiper, Yale ’84. 


HE Christian Student Movement provided Henry 
Wright an opportunity for expressing his religious life 
from his first days in college. At Northfield, Robert P. 
Wilder, John R. Mott, Robert E. Speer, Lyman Abbott, 
Richard C. Morse, Fletcher Brockman, Robert McBurney, 
and others brought to his life, confined otherwise within 
academic circles, the larger air of the outside world. The 
needs of students of other nations, the stirrings of youth in 
Europe and in Asia, made a profound impression upon him. 
The organization of Christian youth in thirty-seven countries 
he believed to be the world’s brightest promise. With his love 
for study, he might have lived an obscure life as a patient, 
hard-working scholar, had not this movement fired his imagina- 
tion and claimed him as its own. 

In his service on various student committees and during his 
term as President of the Christian Association he had given 
promise of future power as a spiritual leader. In the spring 
of his Senior year the Graduate Advisory Committee of the 
Yale Y.M.C.A. invited him to return as General Secretary 
with the privilege of doing part-time work in the Graduate 
School. William Sloane, Richard C. Morse, and James B. 


Reynolds—three men who, throughout life, had a special in- 
19 


20 Life of Henry B. Wright 


terest in the spiritual life of the University—were then serving 
on the committee. The invitation was accepted and he gave 
himself to the double task of leading the voluntary religious 
forces at Yale and studying for his doctorate in Greek and 
Latin. 

During his first year as Secretary a series of Sunday eve- 
ning talks to undergraduates was arranged, including ad- 
dresses by Rev. John Watson (Ian MacLaren) of Liverpool 
on “Faith and Works,” and one by Professor George Adam 
Smith, then of Glasgow, on “Prayer.” Rev. Alexander 
McKenzie, D.D., of Cambridge, spoke on “Forgiveness” ; 
Dwight L. Moody on “Herod and John the Baptist”; Pro- 
fessor Bernadotte Perrin of Yale University on “Experiment 
vs. Experience”; Rev. George B. Cutten of Yale University 
on “Salvation, What Is It?”?; Rev. Charles E. Jefferson, D.D., 
of New York City, on ‘‘College Men and the Church”; and 
Rev. Samuel E. Herrick, D.D., of Boston, on ‘‘Foundation 
and Fabric.” ‘These addresses were subsequently published by 
Henry Wright in a cheap edition for students. 

In April, 1899, a series of evangelistic meetings was con- 
ducted under Dwight L. Moody and Professor George Adam 
Smith which aroused deep interest but was not adequately fol- 
lowed up by Bible-study groups and other opportunities for 
spiritual fellowship—a defect which the General Secretary was 
quick to discover and correct. Largely as a result of his 
activity and that of his associates, the Yale delegation to the 
Northfield Student Conference the following summer included 
over seventy-five undergraduates. 

The question arose in the early winter of 1899 as to 
whether he should continue as Secretary in the academic year 
1899-1900. William Sloane, 95, chairman of the Advisory 
Committee, approached him on the matter by letter, to which 
he wrote the following reply dated December 28: 


I have delayed some days in answering your kind note of 
December 15 because I felt that I ought again to consult, as I 
did last year, those who are my advisors in regard to my studies. 


Secretary of the Yale Christian Association 21 


I rejoice to say that they feel, as I do, that the Secretaryship 
offers an exceptional field for service, and that I can well afford 
the loss of another year of entire study. 

Of the priceless experience which I am gaining from the work 
at Dwight Hall there can be no doubt. Mr. Morse spoke very 
kindly the other evening on our return from Mr. Moody’s funeral 
of the work which we have tried to do and which the ready and 
efficent cooperation of men like Mills, Coffin, Hopkins, Adams, 
and a score of others has rendered possible. If I could only 
feel as sure of what he said as I am of the value of the experience 
to myself, I should not hesitate to allow you to Brepose my name 
at the meeting of the Graduate Committee. 

If you feel that I can do the work of the next year more 
acceptably than any one else who is available, then I shall be 
glad to be considered. I thank you for your own kind words 
and wish you all success in your work. 


Activities in the Association were expanding constantly 
in these years. During the late winter and spring of 1900 
there was some agitation among the undergraduates of the 
Sheffield Scientific School for a Y.M.C.A. building on their 
campus similar to Dwight Hall in Yale College. When re- 
porting on other matters in February, Henry mentioned this 
fact to Richard C. Morse, then General Secretary of the In- 
ternational Committee of the Y.M.C.A. 


I write especially to tell you about the noon meeting at Sheff. 
There were one hundred Sheff. undergraduates present, one-fifth 
of the total registration of the School. Men had to sit on the 
stairs and stand in the entry way. Is not this a cry from 
Macedonia for that $15,000 which we need to complete the 
amount necessary for a new building? Do you not think it would 
be possible to get three men in New York to give $5,000 apiece 
toward such a building? I wish we might start work on it in 
July. 


These efforts were consummated when Mr. and Mrs. Byers 
made to the University a gift of Byers Hall, the second floor 
of which was devoted to the interests of the Association. 


22 Life of Henry B. Wright 


The outstanding event of the second year of Henry 
Wright’s secretaryship was a series of evangelistic meetings 
under the leadership of John R. Mott. On March 12, 1900, 
a few days after the campaign, he wrote to Dr. Mott: 


I write to thank you on behalf of the Association for the 
pamphlets which arrived so promptly and which have been in 
large part not only delivered, but—as I have occasion to know— 
read. We have gone at the campaign of following up the men 
just as systematically as we organized the preparation for your 
visit. We are trying to have each man fight his particular sin 
Biblically, making Bible study for each man an individual matter. 
To express it otherwise, each man is reading through parts of 
the New Testament and writing out those verses that apply to his 
particular weakness. I had nineteen of the twenty-two Freshmen 
who took a stand in my room the other night, telling them how 
to make Bible study practical. Paul Moody has the Juniors in 
a little group meeting Tuesday and Friday. In the Sophomore 
class the four deacons each took a small number of men apiece, 
for whom they are personally responsible. The Seniors have been 
given to individual work, as have also the Sheffield men. I am 
looking after the men in the Medical School. 

You can’t know, Mr. Mott, what good your visit has done 
Yale. I have yet to find a man who really disapproves of your 
methods. Men everywhere talk freely on religious subjects. I 
can’t help thinking what a lot it will mean for the Church of 
Christ to have five hundred men graduate from Yale this year 
who not only have heard but who know by experience that a 
religious awakening among educated men is not only possible, 
but more than that, necessary. This last week has been one of 
supreme happiness to me—the happiest in all my secretaryship. 
Not a night has passed but some man has come in to tell 
me of a new man who took a stand in the meetings or who has 
made things right with the folks at home. The real number is 
nearer one hundred than eighty-eight. 

Men come to my room and say that they only wish that this 
opportunity to lead another man into the Kingdom, which is 
their experience for the first time and for which they are now on 
fire, had been given to them in Freshman year. 


Secretary of the Yale Christian Association 238 


The prayer groups all continue as before with the ultimate 
object of helping the men who were affected. The motto we 
have taken is this: “that of all those which Christ has given us 
through you we should lose none.” 

Edwards and I are going down to Princeton for Thursday 
evening at the invitation of Evans, to speak before the Associa- 
tion. It is with the distinct understanding that we come simply 
as witnesses; otherwise we would not dare undertake the work. 
We shall witness of the power of God’s Spirit at Yale and we 
ask your prayers that we may let God speak through us. 

P.S.—10:30 p.m. As I finish this letter another entirely new 
man has just stepped in to tell me that he smashed up a picture 
after your meeting Sunday, began a systematic study in the 
Bible, and feels the power of Christ. 


The account which he wrote for the Association Record at 
Yale gives a vivid picture of a remarkable stirring of spiritual 
life among the students: 


The visit of John R. Mott to Yale, from March 4 to 6, re- 
sulted in a spiritual awakening among the students of the Uni- 
versity unparalleled since the visit of Henry Drummond, in 1887. 
Indeed, it is an open question whether there has ever been a series 
of meetings more heartily approved by all classes of men, and 
more thorough-going in its results, than this series of addresses 
in Dwight Hall... . 

Earnest prayer at Northfield, and during the summer months, 
increased in volume as men came together in little bands during 
the fall and winter terms to pray for the success of the meetings. 
The one aim and purpose of Mr. Mott’s coming was kept before 
the men’s minds by the visit of the Secretary to each group, week 
after week. The other religious society of the College—the 
Berkeley Association—generously gave up its Lenten services 
during the series and united with the Christian Association in 
preparation for the campaign. An Attendance Committee of 
one hundred Christian men was appointed, and an additional 
committee of twenty-five was added to look after advertising, 
music, and other details. 

Robert E. Speer came to Yale on February 11, and his talks 


24 Life of Henry B. Wright 


—in the morning at Battell Chapel, and in the evening at Dwight 
Hall—were no small factor in preparing the way for the subse- 
quent meetings. The visit of F. M. Gilbert and D. B. Eddy, 
primarily in the interest of the Student Volunteer Movement, 
but with the added result of deepening the spiritual lives of all 
the Christian workers with whom they came in contact, also aided 
materially. ‘The meetings were fully advertised by posters, 
_ by slips placed in the hands of every student, and by announce- 
ments in Chapel and in the College daily. ... 
: In all, Mr. Mott conducted five services and three after- 
meetings. It is estimated that, outside of the Sunday morning 
service, when he addressed twelve hundred men, he spoke to 
nearly seven hundred different students in voluntary gather- 
ings. . . . The marked increase in numbers each night furnished 
striking testimony to the approval of Mr. Mott’s methods by the 
students. As a result of the five services, eighty-eight men ex- 
pressed their purpose to accept Christ as personal Saviour and 
Lord. Between meetings, Mr. Mott’s time was almost entirely 
consumed by personal interviews, and fifty men embraced the 
opportunity of talking with him on questions of personal religion. 
The most remarkable feature of the campaign was the frank- 
ness and openness with which men of all beliefs discussed the 
great themes which Mr. Mott presented. ‘There was a spirit 
of earnest inquiry abroad, which seemed to permeate every 
corner of the University. In eating clubs, in walks with one an- 
other, and in the campus rooms, men everywhere broke through 
the unnatural barrier which often keeps the best of friends from 
talking on religious matters. Such a campaign, wholly devoid 
of sensational or professional methods, and appealing to the 
intellect and will rather than to the emotions, could not fail to 
bring about a definite cutting with sin by many men, and a desire 
to live a truly surrendered life on the part of many others. 
Systematic and thorough attempts were made to conserve the 
results of the meetings. The Association had learned from its 
experience of the year before an unmistakable lesson on the neces- 
sity of this. At the close of the meetings, Mr. Mott presented 
three pamphlets, by himself, on “Bible Study,” “Prayer,”’ and the 
“Morning Watch,” to every man who had expressed his intention 
of accepting Christ as Saviour and Lord. An attempt was made 


Secretary of the Yale Christian Association 25 


at once to get every man to study his own particular sin Bibli- 
cally. In order that men might not be tempted to trust in their 
own strength, after having cut with sin, Mr. Speer was called 
upon to address the University, on Friday night after Mr. Mott 
had left, on the subject of the necessity of something more than 
the so-called merely moral life. Over five hundred students were 
present to hear him. 

The results of these meetings, in their effect on student 
morals, and in their stimulating power to more active Christian 
effort, have been great. A number of men have already joined 
the Church on profession of faith. Mr. Mott’s purpose was to 
make Christianity a practical and reasonable thing. His appeal 
was logical and sincere, and the men of Yale, with equal sincerity, 


responded. 


After a six weeks’ interval which followed the meetings 
under Dr. Mott, Henry Wright was offered a position on the 
staff of the International Committee of the Y.M.C.A. as Bible- 
study Secretary. Because of family reasons and because he 
felt that the will of God for him was university teaching, he 
declined. He wrote Dr. Mott, May 2, 1900: 


After a prayerful and thorough consideration of the Bible- 
study Secretaryship and its claims, I have finally come to a 
definite and final decision. It has occupied a large part of my 
time for the past few weeks, since we met in New Haven. I 
have studied the work from all standpoints, have consulted with 
my best friends and the family, and then have withdrawn from 
all outside influences and worked the thing out alone. I am con- 
vinced that I ought not to undertake the work. 

Developments in my family shortly after you left convinced 
me that the thought of taking up the work in connection with 
the Secretaryship at Yale were entirely out of the question, but 
I delayed letting you know about next year until I should decide 
the question once and for all. 

You know personally, Mr. Mott, how much I value my asso- 
ciations with you, and I am sure you will be convinced that I 
have acted sincerely, deliberately, and prayerfully. 


26 Life of Henry B. Wright 


After the initial dedication of himself to God, which he 
made in Senior year at Northfield, the next great crisis in 
Henry Wright’s life occurred in the illness and death of his 
brilliant younger brother, Alfred, of the class of 1901. This 
promising boy was stricken with tuberculosis in 1898 and died 
on May 20, 1901. Alfred Wright stood first in his class in 
scholarship and had won many prizes. From boyhood the two 
brothers had a great affection for each other, unusual even in 
well-regulated and happy homes. Alfred’s failing health was 
a grievous blow to Henry. On May 26, 1901, he wrote Wil- 
liam Sloane in answer to a letter of sympathy: 


Your kind note, together with Mr. Morse’s, has been of 
especial help to me in these last few days because I felt that we 
three had been confidants in Alfred’s illness, and I think that you 
two alone knew how ill he really was. 

I did not know that death could be such a wonderful experi- 
ence and have in it such beautiful lessons. God granted us a 
special token of His love in the special revelation of Christ’s 
presence during all the last hours. I never saw such a peaceful 
and trustful spirit as Alfred had. His illness and death have 
proved to be the greatest apologetic I could hope to have for 
Christianity. It will give me a new message for men and a new 
power for work. 


Henry looked upon his brother’s passing as a time of en- 
largement of his own attitude toward sorrow and pain and the 
problem of evil. From this time his letters to people in be- 
reavement contained a note of assurance uncommon even in 
those of robust faith. One such letter follows: 


I know how hard it must be for you all these days, especially 
you. Your tender love for your mother was always so apparent 
that even the firmest faith cannot keep you from being lonely. 
But there is an unseen fellowship which you will realize and prize 
as years go by. It becomes richer every year to me and it is so 
precious that I know it must be real, and it is given only to those 
who have, as it were, ambassadors in the other land. The force 
comes slowly, but it deepens with every year and it abides. 


Secretary of the Yale Christian Association 27 


Henry Wright was General Secretary of the Yale 
Y.M.C.A. from the fall of 1898 to the fall of 1901. In that 
year a significant development occurred in the Christian work 
of the University, when branches of the Association were 
organized in the different professional schools. In the re- 
adjustment necessary to make this new work successful, 
Henry Wright was made Graduate Secretary, while R. H. 
Edwards took his place as General Secretary. During the 
college year 1902-1903 J. F. Ferry and G. W. Butts were 
added to the staff of secretaries to work in the Scientific 
School, and E. A. Stebbins to work in Yale College. 

In the city, at conferences, and in Yale, Henry Wright 
held Bible classes which were always well attended and very 
often crowded with listeners. On November 1, 1901, he wrote 
to Mr. Morse concerning one class: “Things are in magnifi- 
cent shape. I have nearly forty men in the Senior Bible 
Class.””> On March 9, 1902, he wrote to another friend: 


I tried to get my Bible Class to stop at Easter, but they 
would not hear of it and have forced me to go on into May. So 
my last hope of being able to get off for my Sundays is gone. 
We had been in the habit of meeting for three Sundays in the 
month and then omitting the class on Communion Sunday, and 
that was the reason why I could not get off to come up to 
Taunton when you joined the Church. But last month they 
came to me with the request to meet as usual on Communion 
Sundays. I demurred at first, for it cut off my only chance to 
get away for a Sunday, but I finally consented. I never was so 
rewarded for anything in my life. At the close of the lesson on 
this new Sunday a man came up and asked if I would see him 
that afternoon. Wholly unsolicited, and as a result of it, he 
accepted Christ as Saviour and Lord. He is a happy fellow now. 
I have been out walking with him twice and he is a new man. 
I shall never hesitate about a humanly possible chance to preach 
the Gospel again. 


Yale celebrated her Bicentennial in 1901. Henry Wright 
was asked to be co-editor with Samuel H. Fisher, ’89, James B. 


28 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Reynolds, °84, and William H. Sallmon, 94, of a volume 
entitled Two Centuries of Christian Activity at Yale, one of 
a series of books commemorating the history and achievements 
of the University. This publication was an admirable volume 
to place in the hands of interested undergraduates, giving 
them a glimpse of the price paid to create and perpetuate 
Christian traditions in the University. On November 1, 1901, 
he remarked in a letter to Richard C. Morse: 


Nothing but the kindest words have reached us so far about 
the book. Mr. Dexter wrote very commendatory words in a 
recent letter. Anson [Stokes] has just had ten copies sent to the 
ten leading preparatory schools of the United States at his own 
expense. I have sent copies to Mrs. Byers, D. Stebbins, and 
Mrs. Cochran. 


William Sloane, James B. Reynolds, and Samuel H. Fisher 
underwrote nearly all of the initial expense of publishing this 
volume. Henry’s absolute honesty in returning this money to 
them is typical of his method in all money matters and his 
carefulness about details. He accounted to Mr. Sloane regu- 
larly over a period of years until the funds which they ad- 
vanced to underwrite the book were repaid in full. He wrote 


to Mr. Sloane on February 15, 1905: 


The royalty and receipts on “Two Centuries of Christian 
Activity at Yale” to date are as follows: 


Royalty January 31, 61904) 0 oi ies. nd bios 
Royalim daly L904 tc ec ee aa Lie le La 
RoyaltyrJanuary Sir O0R ee eer. 8 7.86 
N. 2 receipts pine hie. “he SSL) a as 8.54 

$22.84 


Your share (one-third) is $7.61. I enclose check for that amount. 
This reduces your loan to $74.30. 
We have sold thirty-five copies to the Freshmen this fall. 


In February of 1906 he wrote again: 


Secretary of the Yale Christian Association 29 


This is St. Valentine’s Day and I send you a Valentine in 
the shape of a check for $8.18, being one-third of the royalty 
on the Bicentennial Book since February 15, 1905. We had a 
good sale this year and look forward to a better one next fall. 


The following year, in April, he made another accounting: 


I enclose check for $4.93, your share of the royalty on the 
Bicentennial Book for this year. 


In the course of a note to Mr. Sloane in July of 1907, he 
stated : 


I enclose 80¢ more royalty on the Bicentennial Book, which 
brings the balance down to $155.27. We had a remarkable con- 
ference at Northfield—with about one hundred and seventy-five 
Yale men present. 


The deficit on the book was not fully paid until January of 
1911. On the thirtieth of that month Professor Wright wrote 
to Mr. Sloane: 


It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction—how much I 
cannot tell you—to send to you and Jim Reynolds this week a 
final payment on “T'wo Centuries of Christian Activity at Yale.” 
I have now disposed of the entire edition and the account is all 
cleaned up square. 

I cannot thank you enough for your great kindness in making 
this loan for all these ten years, but I know the book has done 
something to establish Yale’s religious leadership in the country ; 
and if it had not been for you and Jim, it would never have been 


possible. 


He was constantly searching for heroic examples of men 
who overcame handicaps, or who in their day stood for and 
created traditions of honesty and clean living, and this volume 
offered an opportunity in a field very close to his heart. 

As head of the Christian Association work he had a special 
relation to the services in Battell Chapel, which were con- 


30 Life of Henry B. Wright 


ducted by the foremost religious leaders of the country, each 
of whom occupied the pulpit for one Sunday. ‘The evening 
meeting in Dwight Hall was generally conducted by the Chapel 
speaker of the morning. Interviews were arranged and other 
facilities provided for the greatest possible number of helpful 
contacts. He wrote to Richard C. Morse in February, 1901, 
concerning one of John R. Mott’s services: ‘The evening meet- 
ing in Dwight Hall was probably the largest ever held in the 
building, over five hundred being present.” Dr. Mott was 
on the College list of preachers again in 1903, and Henry 
wrote of a recent visit in January of that year: “John R. 
Mott was here yesterday and gave us two fine talks, one on 
the argument for Christ’s divinity and the other on prayer.” 
It was probably regarding this visit on January 18, 1903, 
that he wrote to the New York office of the Student Depart- 
ment: 


Profound impression was made both at the morning service in 
Chapel and at the Sheffield Scientific building, which was packed 
to the doors, men standing in the hallway. At the evening ser- 
vice in Dwight Hall 450 were present ; 350 remained to the after- 
meeting; 80 tarried to a second after-meeting, and 48 expressed 
a desire to know Christ as their Saviour. Among the latter were 
some of our prominent men. Mr. Mott was occupied with inter- 
views until midnight and had filled every hour allotted for Mon- 
day with appointments for interviews with others. ‘This is the 
most thoroughgoing work of the Spirit in my generation at Yale. 

Please accept all this note as confidential for the present. 
The campaign is only begun—there is much fighting ahead. 


As a friend at large of the Yale undergraduate he was 
confronted with a varied list of perplexities. Scores of 
students sought him out on all phases of the society and fra- 
ternity question. ‘T’o the man on the outside he always said: 
“Be worthy to be elected to the best and you will not be 
crushed though you are elected to none.” 'Towards members 
of fraternities and societies he was relentless in insisting on an 


Secretary of the Yale Christian Association 31 


ethical basis for judging men. Many came to him each year 
before Tap Day. Should one accept the first society that 
tapped him, or should he wait? Henry Wright had moral fiber. 
He always advised men to wait for the choice of their hearts, 
no matter if they walked off the campus defeated in the eyes 
of the world, or if in their waiting they refused other societies 
and in the end faced election to none. It was not necessary 
that a man should be elected—it was essential that he should 
be worthy of the best. To those who asked his opinion as to 
how far one would be justified in calling attention to his own 
good points, he often quoted the epigram of General Horace 
Porter: ‘Never underestimate yourself in action, never over- 
estimate yourself in your official report.” 

There were also many queries regarding social problems. 
Some men attending the University came from communities 
where few Christian people danced; they did not wish to be 
narrow, and at the same time they desired to be true to their 
principles. In the period of adjustment to more liberal social 
ideas, many students suffered no little mental anguish. The 
Secretary in Dwight Hall had danced fairly well, but he was 
aware that dancing was not helpful to all men in their adoles- 
cent years. He had himself stopped dancing and advised 
others to do the same if dancing made more difficult their fight 
for character. Here, as in the case of smoking, he employed 
I Corinthians 6:12: “All things are lawful for me, but all 
things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me but I 
will not be brought under the power of any.” Another favor- 
ite passage was I Corinthians 9:19: “For though I be free 
from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I 
might gain the more.” 

To some campus social problems there was no easy solu- 
tion; restraint in liberty should be the principle. Often he 
employed I Corinthians 8:13 in discussion on these matters: 
“Tf meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while 
the world standeth.” For twenty years he preached the doc- 
trine of eternal vigilance as the price of safety. A university 


32 Life of Henry B. Wright 


could be wholesome only when a large group of determined 
men set their faces in that direction. 

Because of his deep and vital prayer life, many talked 
with him about their personal devotions. How could the 
sense of God’s presence become more vivid? How could 
Jesus Christ be a real and vital part of life for them? Once 
a friend asked him about reading the Bible openly and kneel- 
ing to pray in a room which was occupied jointly with others. 
He replied in a sentence which Mr. Moody had given at 
Northfield: “Hide when tempted to show, and show when 
tempted to hide.” 

The little room on the top floor of Dwight Hall became 
a center for groups and a haven for students in trouble. Dis- 
appointed and defeated men found sympathy and encourage- 
ment. Doubters received help in philosophical difficulties. 
Men with troubled consciences discovered the way to restitu- 
tion and victory. Not a few very wealthy students, who were 
coming into positions of power and influence, came there with 
theoretical questions on their minds and went away with moral 
questions on their hands about the investment of life and 
treasure. Men poor in talents and in material resources were 
encouraged by a friend who took no account of externals. 

One of the outstanding secrets of Henry Wright’s power 
with men was his willingness to confront them with their mis- 
deeds. No business was made of telling lazy men that they 
were good fellows, or moral laggards that they were decent. 

During these busy years of study and of service in Dwight 
Hall, he grew to be a campus figure. Dignified, kindly, a 
trifle shy at times, always eager to be of use, he grew into the 
hearts of faculty and students alike. “In connection with my 
own undergraduate days,” said Professor B. W. Kunkel of 
Lafayette College, “I look upon Henry’s smile of greeting at 
the head of the stairs in Dwight Hall, as we came to the 
meetings, as one of the benedictions which helped me through 
the week.” 

In what lay the secret of the charm that endeared him to so 


Secretary of the Yale Christian Association 33 


many? ‘To begin with, he was a born gentleman. Often he 
quoted a remark of Mr. Moody, that Paul did not list dignity 
as one of the fruits of the spirit, and yet he was dignified in the 
finest sense, as Mr. Moody was. In all those genuine acts of 
thoughtfulness and delicacy becoming one of gentle birth, 
in his honesty and ideas of honor, his early training manifested 
itself and revealed a man of culture and refinement. 'Tender- 
ness in the presence of sorrow, understanding when confronted 
with weakness or indecision, gentleness towards the absurd, 
loving kindness even to those in outbreaking sin—these were 
some of the marks of this quiet gentleman. There clung 
about him when dealing with the darkest problems what might 
have been mistaken for a lenient tolerance: it was rather a 
love for the man, wholly apart from the flaming hatred that 
he felt for his moral delinquency. He believed as Drum- 
mond did, in the recoverableness of the human soul at its 
worst. 

It might be said that he was a creative listener, an invalu- 
able quality in dealing with young men in a communicative 
period of life. A subtle and nameless gift of sympathy and 
magnetism created confidence in his understanding and wis- 
dom. God seems hampered sometimes for want of delicate, 
sensitive souls through which to express the Divine compassion. 
Abiding until the end of some protracted tale helped him to 
solve many problems impossible of settlement without the 
knowledge gained by these lengthy narrations. There was 
a keen desire to get at the whole situation before offering a. 
solution. This came partly by nature and to some extent from 
his study of Plato. He came to know that he who will aid 
must understand, and learned to listen and to wait. 

Another secret of his power in his secretaryship and in 
after years was the transparent directness and simplicity of 
his methods and his use of effective illustration. He employed 
few tricks to reveal the treasures of his mind. But after 
talking over a problem in the simplest of English, he would 
often illustrate the vice or the virtue wrapped up in the situa- 


34 Life of Henry B. Wright 


tion by references to Greek and Latin authors as well as to 
modern works. Then one knew that he had read widely and 
with pencil in hand. When it came to the Cross, he would 
pick out incident after incident to parallel this experience in 
human life. William James’s serial method of employing many 
similar illustrations, until a point was perfectly clear, was one 
of his favorite teaching devices. Sometimes he would quote 
from four or five novels, a Greek play, and a book or two 
from the Bible in making a point incisive. 

Honest scholarship on the part of the leader in Christian 
service on the campus did much to commend the Association 
to both faculty and students. One who was as thoroughgoing 
in his studies would be apt to be genuine in his spiritual life. 
A cardinal principle existed in the Association while he was at 
its head that students who occupied positions of leadership 
should stand well in their studies. Henry Wright would have 
concurred with Aaron Burr’s remark in that unfortunate 
man’s last speech to the Senate: “On full investigation it will 
be discovered that there is scarce a departure from order but 
leads to or is indissolubly connected with a departure from 
morality.””. The low-stand Christian received little comfort 
from the Secretary in Dwight Hall when a warning arrived 
from the Dean’s office! Good work was even more necessary 
than good works. 

As General Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. from 1898 to 
1901 and as Graduate School Secretary from 1901 to 1903 
Henry Wright was the leader and genius of Christian activity 
at Yale. Mr. Mott said of him: “He is, of all the men I 
know, the ideal student secretary.” 

As he donned the gown of a tutor in Greek and Latin, he 
carried the same mood of fearless honesty and love into that 
position which he manifested in the work of Dwight and Byers 
Halls. 


CHAPTER V 
AS A TEACHER IN YALE COLLEGE AND A WINNER OF SOULS 


For more than a score of years the Yale spirit has been a 
classic in the realms of sport. It is a byword wherever athletes 
assemble in stern endeavor or sportsmen gather to tell a brave 
tale. It is a lighthouse on the shore, and many a faltering and 
discouraged athlete has seen the gleam and nerved himself for 
one more try that should be the best try of all. This spirit must 
be in the air they breathe in New Haven, or is it tradition? Is 
the old university haunted by the shades of the mighty men of the 
past? Do they come back in the Fall twilights every year and 
whisper in young ears and touch young bodies with invisible 
hands? Who can say? Anyway, a Yale team is never beaten 
until the game has come to anend. The Yale spirit never shone 
any brighter than that which many Pennsylvania and Princeton 
and Pittsburgh and other college teams have carried through 
a season of victory like a lighted lamp, but broken, battered, 
beaten Yale teams have it, and the shadows of defeat can never 
get dark and heavy enough to smother this light. 

—Quoted by H. B. W. from Philadelphia Public Ledger. 


T is the five years after college which are the most decisive 

in a man’s career,” said Phillips Brooks. ‘‘Any event 

which happens then has its full influence. The years 

which come before are too fluid. The years which come after 
are too solid.” 

Henry Wright had studied for a Doctor’s degree in the 
Classical Department of the Yale Graduate School, with the 
full intention of making the teaching of the classics his life 
work, and he entered upon his teaching career as a tutor of 
Greek and Latin at Yale. But the higher allegiance to which 


he had dedicated himself in 1898 was to cause his chief de- 
35 


THE RECOVERY OF 


Of the one hundred or more Roman tragedies 
of the period of the republic known to us by 
name, not one has survived entire. Only eight 
can be surely recognized from external evidence 
as Fabulae Praetextae or National Dramas;' and of 
these eight we have scarcely over thirty fragments 
of afew words each. That, however, the remains of 
many more must be hidden beneath the surface of 
such repositories of earlier testimony as Livy, 
Dionysius, Plutarch, and Ovid, has long been 
recognized. As early as 1859, Otto Jahn suggested 
that the story of the death of Sophoniba (Livy, 
~ XXX, 12-16), which is depicted also on the 
famous Pompeian wall painting, owes many of 
its dramatic features to such a source.? Reiffer- 
scheid’s review of Ribbeck* in 1880 urged that 
Livy in several of the most vivid scenes was 
directly under the influence of the Praeteztae. 
Ribbeck in 1881 called attention to the strong 
internal evidence in favor of such a source for 
Livy’s-account of the siege of Veii (V, 21: 8 ff.),* 
which is confirmed by the explicit statement of the 
writer himself. It was not till 1887, however, 


1 It is impossible to draw any hard and fast line between a tragedy and 
a historical drama from the point of view of the ancients. To the Greek 
mind, for example, the characters in the Agamemnon of Aeschylus were 
as truly historical as those in the Persians. 

2 Jahn, Der Tod der Sophoniba auf einem Wandgemiilde (Bonn, 1859), 
p. 12. 

3 Bursian’s Jahresbericht, XXIII (1880), p. 265. 

‘ Rhein. Mus., XXXVI (1881), p. 321. 

5 haec ad ostentationem scenae gaudentis miraculis aptiora: quam ad 
finem (V, 21:9). 

[26] 





Facsimile Page of The Recovery of a Lost Roman Tragedy, 
By Henry B. Wright 
36 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 37 


velopment to come along entirely different lines and to result 
in a life work which he had not anticipated. 

A formal offer to teach at Yale came to him in January 
of 1903. ‘As a compromise between the Greek and Latin 
departments I am to teach six hours of each next year, rank- 
ing as tutor in Greek and Latin. It will, of course, be much 
harder for me, but it is a rare opportunity.” His work began 
in October, 1903. One month later he wrote: 


I have enjoyed my teaching very much and I am astounded 
every day at the perfect courtesy of the men. I haven’t had a 
single case of intentional disorder so far from any one of my one 
hundred men. The preparation is very hard. I have my two 
Bible classes and Division Officer work besides. But of course 
this very fact makes me accessible for either department. 

My work keeps me almost entirely localized here. I don’t get 
away to speak at all except on Thursday evenings at Bridgeport. 
Last night John R. Mott visited me and gave me a formal in- 
vitation to be one of five men with himself to go to Japan for a 
month’s visit next September to talk to practically all the stu- 
dents of Japan on Christianity. It would have been a rare 
opportunity—expenses paid both ways and a part in probably 
the greatest student campaign ever held. Japan is just ready; 
government opposition is broken down and the nation is willing 
to give a fair ear. But of course I couldn’t go. I had already 
told Professor Perrin I would do his work for him next year. 
It was the biggest call I ever had from the standpoint of ex- 
ternals. 


From the beginning his courtesy, honesty, and cordial 
manner in the classroom drew to him the hearts of the students. 
He never had large classes, for men do not flock to study Plato 
or Tacitus as they do to courses with a somewhat more obvious 
immediate value; but his classes were well attended and he 
took a personal interest in every man in them. 

In the fields of Latin and Greek he was soon engaged in 
teaching Livy, Tacitus, and Horace, with Assistant Profes- 
sors Ingersoll and Clark and Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Rea 


38 Life of Henry B. Wright 


as colleagues. Livy, Books I and II, were studied, and the 
Agricola and Germania of Tacitus, with the Satires of Horace. 
In a course in Homer, Herodotus, and Plato, he was associated 
with his old master, Professor Perrin, and Dr. W. H. Thomp- 
son. Selections were studied from the Odyssey XIII-X XIV, 
from Herodotus VI and VII, from Plato’s Apology and parts 
of the Crito and Phedo, and other Greek authors were also 
read in translation. But Henry Wright was a historian, as 
well as a philologist, and he was given a course in the History 
Department entitled “The Roman Republic,” which included 
the history of Rome from the beginning of the Republic to 
the accession of Octavius. This course consisted of a manual 
study of the rise and fall of the Republic, supplemented by 
lectures, with a detached study of a single leader or period 
from the sources. 

An idea of a course in Roman private life was developed 
by him, which was put into the curriculum as a study in 
Juvenal and Martial and Pliny’s Letters. In this class 
literary and social conditions were investigated, numerous 
classroom helps being employed, such as busts, weapons, 
parchments, manikins, costumes, and _ reflectoscope views. 
Associated with him in this course was Clarence Mendell. 

Gradually a larger share of history teaching was placed 
upon him, and in 1908 he was made Assistant Professor of 
Roman History and Literature. By 1909 he was teaching an 
outline survey of ancient history from the earliest civilization 
on the Euphrates to the decline of the Roman Empire. 
Special attention was given in this course to aspects which 
would be most helpful for the study of medieval history. He 
also conducted a course on the historians of ancient Rome, 
which was a systematic analysis and evaluation of all im- 
portant historical material, ancient and modern, bearing upon 
the Republic and the Empire. This study was practically a 
guide to the sources and bibliography of Roman history. In 
addition, a study of Hannibal was developed until it became 
a course on his campaigns against Rome. In 1910 and 


ae 
yo [ay ee fh Watry OnE, 


Feed 
(0) Myre — say ians ooaprhenetd shoot nk Ge Ani 4 a 4ork- fre 


(%) Soca n Go - Th 20m oy ha deeds rem - ATI LF Neel 4 Ze doe 
Cigtl, Cmignclin, anh brgeg Firion, 


(ce) LDmreyiince + Ra Corll frre mignaa 4 Ciplag - sno Ceca 
C1) ferwrceraree Atderde ~~ On falc 2 are LE, Lacan r 
(ny Lat&G) (2) caa-Qeun Deke Bc En tan pAtat Lhe 


(A) Fant, Crnnehig ~ prerelS o githr oraiiy — furl Ouecerde feral - 
[ Famnt, - Gereugce An~ Vente 


P “Witreee Wats Bo rea t ABH BYERS 
2 AAV ay ee Wilew—mity Se UU 
(4) Fie Brgrnmtyy gq Awerne Wty OnLy in ER Orent 


(0) E = Skonins Eat Keng Cbracpe, Irvesimy My ges ale (Merte BKT) 
cee my bEiehe BP Venom % eR ag W tug. 
Care o Denrpke Avelcas Cac 1? Too )iw2) 
Ringe Arnwmale - 


> - Gucit 4 eto Racer 
: ( Brenroiia A-R. 17. 3% &) 


Egger maven Yavdused O Nak fntng Ze 2-774--—T Ahs 


Lakerene, Mekiwe VOT Rem od Men Crig Wee 


(v) Ratyen 182 


Emo. Bite, (X14) onkiete " Meahiny” 

E. mayer, Gevohchh, das Alka L2(34tdh 919) op 22-26 
Qrnett PO aTinn- Colm tinkene mss “bhetoy* B.Pem—~ 152-154 
Burg. Ara. Freon Niscriere. 1-6: 


WackamTh 469-490 (Hemme) 39/ (+707) Babyt~o Arex ~~ 
- & Mel, Th Bob yl in 0 ot Fee e Ja-33 
Lew Md) 
Wiidewritian. gjrurru-. £6. to- td 


(07 oa 





Manuscript Notes on Ancient History 
39 


Lene I 


Whieducbkinw (1) Farr nese oy ee Ort "Rrarlarmy ~ 
(1) ten ABR y Ze ce Asemaek 
GQ) We rent 
aw Th Deen lim 
We one Go Mack exh Ma matin 4 Arrecant? Mle ne Tha Reem serne = 
Ah maw Co OE OND e Seceureer Trrada Fe Atomic ~ Aen ocke. Zhe 


Qt tiger! ufo mete Me sy Te Ce seondel Amon Rane 2 pert Zam) 


Maplerr - & mation 4 Matin, 


Corre 2 man 9 OMe sho sins tat fn 
xa Dee one ( Ren, M6) Ph is tf 
Meanieetnad Are 4 Cow tpawinnch - He D 


i re eae Tie: 26 ed Ca Abwtchod 
wen bcc, LO 2baet. ant Le Anne 


"Ate on Cerne Ol 1G ~ ts, 


09 aber OE, oe Ere ait ee 


Ae qerrmi ch Orne Granl PfackeceLer acance Aa Alrole” & Faat— 


( tee Bore 4 Gernrtend) 


The Dragan Wor, NaNO NMR 


( Rand Gown 153-167 : paomioned Count J 


Ar Toe ITY MEAL to 
stor acc arama) ee oo) 
Gerth © ferretek Proton Homere Ofree Qe ~<a « 
Angie Lda, nasanane o Rest y nacpacians Joos 


Yalan Spuae”= 


Oe. I v4 sha etn (tL Home 
ee 


£ggrko~ Barn 9, OW Dao (erp Zoee 3.c) 
Paseo, PAa£-kete = Prnnt- 
Coor~ 4 Pe Taw «© tw - Comedy 1 Rewer TT 
=. Baty lion oer FA CAm korea receenek. Con ge—e C7 
as Daliza - Fkgoraek. 


3. Pra Mehra Sor4l— . eo~ Aon B.C. 
o Ltrey ~~ Liarg  frla, - af,- Ger. Frme- Ing hany 
aT Pewrko ~ Onv-tes a wand, ioi-> 





Manuscript Notes on Ancient History 
40 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 41 


1911 he was associated with several other members of the 
Faculty in a course in European history—a general survey of 
European history from the fourth through the nineteenth 
century. In the same year he taught an outline survey of 
ancient history to the Empire of Charlemagne, touching on 
oriental history only as it furnished a background and source 
for Greek and Roman history. By 1911 he was doing all his 
work in the History Department. 

Although he had ceased to hold office in the Yale 
Y.M.C.A. when he began his work as tutor in Greek and 
Latin, the work of that organization continued to hold a larger 
and larger place in his heart. The able young men who 
served as secretaries during these years looked to him con- 
stantly for advice, new ideas, and inspiration. He kept in 
touch with Mr. Mott and other leaders of the World’s Student 
Christian Federation, sharing their problems and praying 
day by day for the success of their work. But his work for 
Christ was not limited to Yale nor to the student movement. 
The following letter written to Mr. Mott in December, dur- 
ing his second year as tutor in Yale College, 1905, reveals the 
catholicity of his interests and also the number of religious 
undertakings to which hé had put his hand and his head: © 


Your two notes of December 5 and 10, together with the 
copy of The Pastor and Modern Missions, reached me safely. 
I have waited before replying to finish the book, which has been of 
absorbing interest and of real help. It has already decided me 
to make one of my studies in the Life of Christ course which 
I teach to the Freshmen and at Waterbury and Bridgeport a 
distinctively missionary appeal each year. It is to be the one on 
the Mission of the Twelve and the Death of John the Baptist. 
I can take it as a point of departure, at least, for inculcating 
some good missionary principles. Yale is going to put more 
men, money, and prayer into China, and through China into all 
Foreign Missions, than she has in the past. ‘The China educa- 
tional work is taking hold of our men here as no general appeal 
could have been expected to. 


Prd fpeeh. 9 ahal& Come cbs 
PMI es Sah Wd Poel <P TPIS or Dn yt Oe 


Yor Yale aq Neen aeackory off. 
The Dowels, 
We hal Rion f aq 


a 


Chie) ten A «= We Ban wrnaed Yok 


Alo, kre, daw aye aug 
diinne, — CR arg A Mer onset Fen 


Af feel ome kek, 
arith, 


Facsimile of Letter to a Yale-in-China Missionary 
42 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 43 


I have four distinct kinds of Christian work on my hands 
this fall: (1) student, (a) the Freshman Bible Class, where 
we have already 115 men enrolled with an average for the fall 
term of over 65—one man has already decided to join the 
Church next communion; (b) training of the Sophomore group 
leaders (my old Bible class of last year) for Bible study with 
men not in Association work; (2) business men’s classes at the 
Waterbury and Bridgeport Y.M.C.A.’s; (3) young men in 
country towns—at Oakham, my summer place, where we have 
got the fellows of the town in a young men’s club and congress ; 
(4) Yale Mission in China. It is a great encouragement to see 
how, after all, they all want exactly the same thing and really the 
only problem is that of adaptation. 


Exceptional capacities as a Bible-class leader brought him 
constantly into demand at the College Y.M.C.A. as a Bible- 
class teacher and trainer for leaders of groups. His Bible- 
study courses for Freshmen in Dwight Hall were a feature of 
religious life on the campus until his severe illness of 1912. 
In these he nearly always used his courses on “The Life of 
Christ” and “The Will of God and a Man’s Life Work,”— 
the latter a course which he taught for several years before 
he published his volume with that title, and which was one of 
the most effective he ever employed—the result of his own 
study and his own experience. Sidney Lovett, °12, wrote of 
the impression which this course made on one student: 


The first time I ever heard of Henry Wright, I was return- 
ing from Andover, having taken an entrance examination for 
Yale. This was in the late spring of 1909, and I entered in the 
fall. On the train was a man who was a Sophomore at Yale, 
whom I had known, a Catholic by profession of faith. With the 
ardor of any Sophomore with a new Freshman, he began to tell 
me about the College as to what one should do and what one 
should not do. The point, however, on which he was most em- 
phatic was that, whatever else I did or did not do, I was not to 
fail to attend the Freshman Bible Class conducted by Henry 
Wright. He had been attending and found it very valuable and 


AA Life of Henry B. Wright 


urged me to be faithful in availing myself of that opportunity. 
I have often thought of this, especially the source from which 
it came, a Catholic boy, who yet found with that group some- 
thing so real and genuine in the way of spiritual appeal that he 
just could not help but pass the word on to others. 


Men who had attended his Freshman Bible Class were con- 
scientiously followed up in succeeding years. In January of 
1907 he mailed a communication addressed: 


To those who were members of the 1907 Bible Class in Fresh- 
man year: | 

In Freshman year we studied together the main facts in the 
life of Christ with reference to their application to the student 
problems of Yale. Nearly three years have passed since then, and 
many of you have meanwhile taken up advanced studies and have 
been able to look at life from very different points of view. I 
want to ask you to do one thing more for me before you graduate, 
and that is to look once again at the life and teaching of Jesus 
and see if it will not be your happy experience, as it was mine 
in Senior year, to find that there is no real conflict between 
Christ’s ideals and the best thought of the world. 

We have asked Dr. W. J. Dawson to come to Yale for a week, 
February 3 to 10, to re-state the great principles of the Christian 
faith. It has been my privilege to know Dr. Dawson for some time 
and to visit in his home. I can think of few men whom I should 
prefer to have interpret Christ to you as you are about to go 
forth from Yale. May we not meet together again next week 
at the daily evening services under his leadership? He has as- 
sured me that he will be glad to talk personally at certain times 
during each day with any men who may be in doubt regarding 
questions of faith or practice. 

Yours cordially, 
Henry B. Wricut 


In later years Henry Wright had charge of a teachers’ 
training class, in which the class leaders met for an hour of 
instruction and discussion before they went out to meet their 
different groups. 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 45 


The following letter which he wrote to Dr. Mott on March 
25, 1905, as spokesman for the men at the head of Christian 
effort in the University, shows how deeply he was always con- 
cerned for and how thoroughly he was a part of, the spiritual 
life of the campus: 


I come to you with a very insistent message from Yale. We 
feel that we can say to you, “Come, for all things are now 
ready.” We want you and Speer to come to Yale for a series of 
meetings directed especially to making Christians out of church 
members, from April 9 to 12, It is our plan to have one of you 
in the Chapel on April 9 and stay over Monday; then to have the 
other speak on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The spirit of God is with us here in power. We have had 
five men join the Church since Christmas. I have never known 
a time when there have been more enquirers. Unless, however, 
we can get these men to declare themselves, they will drop back. 
A body of men from all classes has been praying for six months, 
and we feel convinced—all are united—that the time has come 
and that you can help us. Unless you have a direct leading from 
God that you ought not to come, don’t refuse us, for our leading 
seems clear. 

We have been behind you every day in your Oxford-Cam- 
bridge trip. God used Dr. Boynton mightily in the Chapel last 
Sunday and there was a packed house for him in the evening, 
but he was called away by sickness in his family and I had to take 
his place. You could not resist our appeal if you had seen the 
eagerness in those faces as I spoke—a simple talk on purity, 
honesty, and the making of wrong right as means for realizing 
Christ. I have had several brief talks as a result of this one 
meeting. God is using the very simplest things with power here 
this year. We need you so far as our human minds can discern. 


To this note Mr. Mott replied: 


Your letter of March 25 reached me in Iowa. I at once 
replied by telegram expressing my regret that I could not accept 
the invitation owing to the fact that all my dates prior to sailing 
on April 12 are taken. In fact, the pressure on me is greater 


4G Life of Henry B. Wright 


than usual. I studied hard over the question to see whether I 
could not fit into your proposed plan but had to give it up with 
great reluctance. I trust that you have been more successful with 
reference to Speer. I am deeply impressed by the facts you give 
about the growing interest at Yale. 


A memorable series of group meetings was begun in the 
spring and winter of 1905 among some intimate friends who 
were deeply concerned about the religious work at the Uni- 
versity. These soon became known as the “Wednesdays at 
Five.” James Howard, °09, remarked concerning these 
groups: 


During Freshman year I was a member, albeit an uncompre- 
hending member, of a group that used to meet in his room every 
little while. The men were mostly upper-class men and I was 
rather awed by them. Afterward, however—I think when I was 
secretary at Dwight Hall—there was another group of which he 
was the leader, in which we brought up the question of honesty, 
and the men all the way from Professor Bacon to Sherry Day, 
who was then a Junior, took turns in giving their own personal 
testimony in regard to their struggles with this elemental prin- 
ciple of Christian living. It made an indelible impression on my 
mind and has been of invaluable help to me ever since in my own 
efforts to maintain an absolute standard of intellectual and moral 
integrity. 


Professor Benjamin Wisner Bacon, who was then college 
pastor, was very active as a counsellor and guide in under- 
graduate affairs of this nature. His capacity for friendship, 
coupled with his great learning, had caused his affection to go 
out to like qualities in Henry. He said: 


The “Wednesdays at Five” meetings were “the heart of heart” 
of Christian activity at Yale. They were held in the little room 
under the eaves on the top floor of Dwight Hall, none being asked 
save the little inside group whom Henry and the rest believed to 
be one hundred per cent consecrated. You may be sure I felt it 
an honor to be with these heart and soul Christian boys. 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 47 
He then mentioned many of the younger Yale men. 


There were intimate revelations of personal religious experi- 
ence there too sacred for any outside ears, but I may mention 
two I shall never forget, those of Joe Roe and Henry Cloud, the 
Indian. There were simple boyish prayers, and plans for rescue 
work in behalf of classmates and friends going wrong, as well as 
projects for successful work at Northfield and the Yale Hope 
Mission. Henry was, of course, always the leader, richest in 
experience, wisest in counsel, most indefatigable in effort. It was 
the very breath of life to him to be about his Father’s business. 


Professor Wright wrote to Ernest Sheldon in February, 
1909: “The group is having wonderful meetings. Joe Roe 
spoke last time. It made us all better men.” 

Some scores of men were within the circle of the ““Wednes- 
days at Five” during the years it existed, an experience which 
left permanent impressions. The plan of small inner circles 
of this kind to which Professor Wright gave great emphasis 
has been the secret of much good work in the University 
Association. In a group like this was conceived, in 19177, the 
idea of the “Committee of 71,’ which did notable work in 
putting Yale graduates on record as opposing liquor at class 
reunions. 

In 1907 a new enterprise was started by some of the 
young religious leaders of Yale. The Yale Hope Mission, 
for men of the city, was opened in a small building on lower 
Court Street. The promoters were William J. Borden, 709; 
Charles S. Campbell, 09; and John Magee, ’06. Louis J. 
Bernhardt, a recent convert of the old Jerry McAuley Mis- 
sion in New York, was made its superintendent. Mr. Bern- 
hardt, though wholly inexperienced in mission work, had a 
compelling story to tell of his life, his years in prison and his 
conversion. ‘The mission was soon soundly established, and 
having good success at both winning souls and starting the 
converts on the way towards an upright and self-respecting 
Christian life. Mr. Bernhardt says of these early days: 


48 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Meetings of the workers, the superintendent, and those re- 
sponsible for the success of the mission were held regularly in 
Dwight Hall. Henry was the leading spirit in these meetings, the 
one to whom all turned for advice, and on whose judgment all 
relied. His belief in the need and great value of the mission put 
heart into all the workers and insured the success of the enter- 
prise. 


Professor Bacon said: 


As college pastor, my relation with Henry could best be sum- 
marized by saying that while I had the name and the official func- 
tions, Henry had the real cure of student souls. He wished it so. 
It could not be otherwise, because he had been for years the un- 
official volunteer shepherd, and it would be hopeless, even if one 
were foolish enough to make the attempt, to substitute an official 
appointee of the faculty in the hearts of the students for the man 
who had chosen them, and whom they had chosen as friend and 
confidant in matters of religion. Henry never failed them. 


The friendship between these two scholarly gentlemen, 
whose primary devotion was to truth and to Christ, grew and 
deepened through the years. Hundreds knew and loved both 
and caught something of the contagion of their spiritual 
lives. 

Kenneth B. Welles, °08, who was Secretary of the Yale 
College branch of the University Y.M.C.A. in the college 
year 1908-1909, remarked of his association with Professor 
Wright in his voluntary unofficial capacity as adviser: 


During the five years of my life in New Haven he was my 
commentary on the Gospels, and his life became the interpretation 
of the life of Jesus. Especially during the last year, when I was 
Secretary of Dwight Hall, did that added intimacy with Henry 
which the position brought to me mean everything. As I received 
a closer view of his methods of personal work with the boys in 
the College, who most needed the steadying hand of a friend, I 
came more and more under the lure of his personality. The 
weekly early morning prayer circle which Henry conducted 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 49 


brought to those of us who were privileged to that intimacy a 
spiritual experience which will refresh us to the grave. After 
fifteen years his personality is still strong on me. More than once 
has he been a buffer against my worst self. 


Another Dwight Hall Secretary, Robert Seneca Smith, 703, 
remarked: 


He was a tower of strength in the work of Dwight Hall. As 
a teacher of the Freshman Bible Class, I think he reached from 
100 to 150 men every year. There is ‘‘a lonely place against 
the sky” whenever I think of Yale. 


Another of his students, William Barnes, speaks of him 
with the same affection: 


I can see his fine face as he led us youngsters in the study of 
the life of our Lord. How wisely and deeply he led us; how he 
gave us confidence in the scientific atmosphere into which we were 
plunged; how he made the Christian life appealing. 

In Sophomore year he came before me in a new light—this 
time as a man of prayer—for it was my privilege to be in a 
prayer circle that met weekly in Connecticut Hall, with such men 
as John Magee, Ken Latourette, Bill Borden, and the rest. 

Then how my admiration grew as I saw his power to help 
boys find Christ, as he did with boys I knew who were going to 
the depths. Then I can see him at Northfield leading Yale re- 
ligiously—an American Henry Drummond. 


EK. F. Jefferson, a famous Yale first baseman, for years 
connected with the Hotchkiss School, said of him: 


I remember how kind and conscientious and sympathetic he 
was. He impressed us so much by his willingness and ability to 
understand and give help to all sorts of undergraduate saints and 
sinners. I suppose you know that he had a special bell in his 
old home which any one might ring day or night. No one but 
Henry answered this bell, and any one in trouble could see him 
without making any formalities or explanations to others of the 
family. 


50 Life of Henry B. Wright 


I recall one man whom Henry aided at a time when he was on 
the point of suicide because of degradation brought on by asso- 
ciation with evil women. 

Have you not noticed how many strong Yale leaders there 
usually are whenever any Christian conference in school or college 
circles is held? Henry put that type of leadership and life into 
Dwight Hall. He captured the consciences and imaginations of 
many strong men. As his life widened he carried this into a 
larger world without his passion showing any decreasing power. 


Brewer Eddy said: 


He passed on the best standards of the late nineties to the 
new decade of the new century. There was no man in that period 
at Yale more responsible for decent standards of living. He set 
his face like flint against booze and immorality. He never made 
any compromise in the terms of “necessary wild oats” or “they 
are just college men.” I recall evening talks on the fence with 
him about the tragedy of broken ideals and moral failure upon 
the part of men we trusted and hoped for in college days. 


Dealing with men in personal interviews over their most 
crucial problems occupied no little of his time. He felt that 
the greatest work he could do was to sit down with a man face 
to face and seek with him for a solution of one of life’s ills. 
“Had a fine talk yesterday with a Yale man who went wrong,” 
he wrote in the fall of 1910, “‘spent two years in prison, was 
converted, and comes back to Yale next fall. He has paid up 
all his debts. The knowledge of helped him largely 
to come to the decision. Just think how that case has multi- 
plied itself.” Whenever he was sought out by a man for help he 
gave the matter the right of way in his life and put his min- 
istry to those who trusted him in this capacity above his 
own desires for pleasure or comfort. He wrote to his wife, 
who was in Taunton, Massachusetts, on a visit with her family, 
in October of 1911: “I wish I might come up to you on Satur- 
day, but I mustn’t. I have so many engagements that I 
cannot. I get letters every mail asking for interviews.” Two 








As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 51 


months later he wrote to her: “The best laid plans of mice 
and men sometimes get postponed. I had just got ready to 
do a tremendous day’s work when one of the students called on 
me with as bad a case as we have ever had here. I’ve spent 
many hours today trying to straighten it out, and the crisis 
will come in an hour or two. I may be out all the evening, 
so I take this breathing spell to write just a line. . . . The 
case will be all over tomorrow.” On the following day he 
wrote: “I was kept pretty busy yesterday in my ‘avocation,’ 
but I tried to work as faithfully on my case as Dr. Chandler 
did on you. I think it came out right, but it was a hard one.” 
The next day he was able to report: ‘My case night before 
last came out beautifully. I know there is great joy in 
heaven over it.” 

On one occasion, just before the Christmas vacation, when 
he was looking forward to a few uninterrupted days at Oak- 
ham to prepare for one of his courses, a group of some of the 
most reckless men in the college asked his help regarding a 
student who had fallen into vicious habits. The man in 
question had left college at the time, but the young instructor 
gave up his trip to the country and remained in New Haven 
on the bare chance that the student might return during the 
Christmas holidays. The lad returned and _ experienced 
through Henry’s guidance a thoroughgoing spiritual trans- 
formation, becoming an outstanding religious leader at Yale 
and extending his influence to many of the colleges of the 
East. 

Professor Wright often obeyed luminous thoughts, as he 
called them, an impelling sense of responsibility, which he 
interpreted as the direct leading of God. Upon one such occa- 
sion he accompanied a colleague to the railroad station, and 
obeyed an impulse to go with him to Hartford. On his return 
trip, after a short doze he was awakened by an old pupil of his 
bending over him. The two rode to New Haven together, the 
student telling his story to his former teacher. Drink had 
driven him nearly mad and he needed help desperately. He 


52 Life of Henry B. Wright 


had been shuttling backward and forward between Hartford 
and New Haven on the train in order to keep away from the 
places where he could buy liquor. After their arrival in New 
Haven Professor Wright wired to a friend in Hartford to 
meet the boy on his return. Through the steady pull of friend- 
ship the young man regained control of himself and developed 
into a life of sobriety and usefulness. Henry Wright never 
doubted that he had been led of God to board the train that 
morning. 

He always regarded his book, The Recovery of a Lost 
Roman Tragedy, published in 1910, as having been done 
under providential direction, inasmuch as it was the result of 
a promise he had made to his students never to use any trans- 
lations to aid him in his preparation. One night as he was 
preparing a lesson for the following day he encountered an 
unusual use of a pluperfect. The solution of the problem 
seemed impossible without the use of a translation, but he 
would not break his word. Midnight passed and the daybreak 
was streaming into his room before he had found his answer, 
but during those hours he had discovered a lost Roman 
tragedy imbedded in the larger work. He worked on its 
publication in the late summer and fall of 1909. He wrote 
to Ernest Sheldon in July, 1909: 


My next big stint is the study in honor of Professor Perrin. 
Soltau has just got out a big book that fits exactly with my 
theory. You can imagine I am happy in reading it. He hadn’t 
discovered my point but it is just what he needs to establish 
his theory. I have located an entire tragedy skeleton in the 
place where he says there ought to be one, but where he was 
unable to find it. No man ever had such fortune as I have. 


The book to which Professor Wright referred was Profes- 
sor Wilhelm Soltau’s Die Anfinge der Roemischen Geschicht- 
schreibung (Leipzig, 1909). In this work Soltau had pub- 
lished a formidable array of evidence to substantiate some 
claims he had made in a former monograph entitled Livius 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 53 


Geschichtswerk (Leipzig, 1897). Contrary to the theories of 
Niebuhr, of Paris, and of a third school which saw in Livy a 
Roman Herodotus, Soltau attempted to prove that early tradi- 
tions in Roman history, as known to us, owed their form and 
in a large measure their substance, “not,” as Professor Wright 
put it, “to a body of lost native folk-lays, nor to a blend of 
primitive Greek and Roman myths, nor yet to the dramatic 
and narrative powers of a romantic historian, but to the cloth- 
ing of gaunt and meager Roman family traditions with bor- 
rowings from the whole cloth of Greek drama and history by 
Roman dramatists of the third and second centuries B.C.” 
Soltau held that the most fruitful source for studying that 
portion of the history of Rome up to the first Punic War 
was to be found in the Roman national drama of Nevius, 
Ennius, Pacuvius, and Accius. Not one of the numerous 
Roman tragedies of the republic has survived entire. Only 
eight are recognized from external evidence as Fabule Pre- 
texte or National Dramas, and of these there are preserved 
only some thirty fragments of a few words each. Professor 
Wright’s diligent work was rewarded by the recovery of one 
of these lost tragedies in the text of Livy I, 46. 

The ideals of scholarship he received from Professor 
Bernadotte Perrin remained a permanent influence through- 
out his life. He remarked of his old master in the study he 
published in his honor: 


The classical seminary on “Herodotus” and the “Tradition 
of the Persian Wars,” conducted by Professor Perrin in the 
fall and winter of 1900-1901, was the decisive factor in the 
making of my own life plans. ‘The whole art of education,” 
says Lankester, “consists in exciting the desire to know. By 
showing something wonderful, mysterious, astounding, and 
marvelous, dug from the earth beneath our feet, we may awaken 
the desire to understand and learn more about that thing.” In 
the first session of that seminary, with the skilled hand of the 
trained excavator, Professor Perrin, in a few deft strokes, laid 
bare the rich source deposits of Herodotus, revealing to our 


54 Life of Henry B. Wright 


astonished gaze many a trace of what we had supposed to be a 
vanished and irrevocable past, hidden behind a nebulous plural, 
or a gentile adjective, or the deceptive parade of an oral source. 

. Then came the searching cross-examination—the detection 
of the needle of truth in the haymow of rhetoric; the nursing 
back to some resemblance of its former self a statement which 
perchance had been stretched and twisted on the Procrustean bed 
of a literary form. Finally, when gossip and malice and rhetoric 
had been disconcerted and silenced, the long row of witnesses 
would be dismissed from our sight, and there would pass before 
us, issuing from the day’s gleaning of historic fact, not that 
motley array of harlequins and prodigies and impossible beings 
whom tradition had taught us to believe had played parts in the 
drama of Ancient History, but a dignified and stately procession 
of men with like passions to our own, each one filling his peculiar 
function in the divine and reasonable plan of the onward march 
of civilization. 


A man who lived his life under God’s guidance, Henry was 
altogether free from any inclination to place blame on the 
Almighty if his labors were not rewarded. 

When he did not feel that necessity was laid upon him to 
attack a given problem, he secluded himself in disciplined 
study. ‘Self-development, when orders do not come,” was a 
password to spiritual fruitfulness which he gave to his Fresh- 
man Bible Class. 

A great sorrow that came to him in May of 1909 was the 
loss of his very close friend, Laurence Thurston, 98. Thur- 
ston was sent to China to spy out the land for Yale’s mission- 
ary effort which has grown into the College of Yale-in-China 
at Changsha. He was the first martyr of Yale’s mission and 
his spirit has been a guiding influence in the work through the 
years. On May 15 Henry penned the following note to 
Thurston’s parents: 


My heart has been with you every minute since Friday night, 
when I returned to New Haven late in the evening and Father 
was waiting to break to me the news that Laurie had been called 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 55 


away. He knew, what you both know, that Laurie was one of 
the dearest friends I ever had and so he wanted to break the 
news gently. 

The hours on the pond and at Johnny’s Island were among 
the most precious of my life. Laurie knew my life’s ideals and 
I knew his. I told him heart secrets that others never knew. It 
was because I loved and trusted him as I did not love and trust 
others that I confided in him. And I feel somehow very lonely 
tonight, almost as I did when Alfred went home. 

I went over to Dwight Hall tonight. Dr. George A. Gordon 
of Boston was the speaker before two hundred Yale students. 
Wholly unexpectedly, he turned the address into a tribute to 
Laurie. I never heard such eloquence; Dr. Gordon was carried 
beyond himself. The boys were spellbound. 

As I came home, one of the boys told me that Laurie’s last 
words to him in New Haven—“I want you to come to China 
and help us”—were ringing in his ears as never before tonight. 
God has surely let him come as a ministering spirit to that man. 

I know one thing very well, and that is that my life is purer 
and more consecrated than it was, because I knew Laurie. It 
makes heaven a much dearer place to look forward to when I 
think that he is there. 

God bless you—I cannot write more. 


As a labor of love and in order to preserve the record of 
this young man’s life for the inspiration of Yale men, Henry 
Wright published his biography in 1908, entitled A Life with 
a Purpose. 

On July 24, 1907, Henry Wright was married to Jo- 
sephine L. Hayward, daughter of Doctor and Mrs. Joseph W. 
Hayward of Taunton, Massachusetts. Miss Hayward was a 
member of the class of 1898 at Wellesley. She became the 
companion of his work in every way, sharing all burdens and 
entering into all enterprises with him. 

Professor Wright had for years wished to attain a speak- 
ing as well as a reading knowledge of French, German, and 
Italian, that he might be thoroughly conversant with the best 
work done by his contemporaries in his field of ancient history. 


56 Life of Henry B. Wright 


So the young couple decided to spend their honeymoon in 
Europe. They sailed in August for Bremerhafen, and spent 
one month in Hanover, where Professor Wright read Eduard 
Meyer in order to familiarize himself with the vocabulary of 
that learned historian before taking a course with him at the 
University of Berlin. They lived in Germany from the fall of 
1907 to the fall of 1908. 

Professor Wright’s classes at Yale were given cver to sub- 
stitutes and his Freshman Bible Class to George Dahl. ‘For 
this purpose,” wrote Professor Dahl, “he not only suggested 
books to read, but also permitted me to make use of his notes. 
These were a model of neatness and covered a great range of 
reading. Evidently he was constantly on the lookout for 
material for his Bible Class and jotted down poems and other 
materials under appropriate headings.” Knowing the classes 
were in safe hands, Professor Wright gave himself unreserv- 
edly to foreign study and the year abroad brought much 
enrichment of mind and heart. 

He threw himself into this new experience in a foreign land 
with an eagerness characteristic of him. , For many months 
Mr. and Mrs. Wright spoke nothing but German, writing, 
reading, and even praying in that language. They seized 
every opportunity to avail themselves of the unusual privileges 
Berlin offered to hear Goethe, Schiller, Shakespeare, and the 
operas of Wagner. Professor Wright’s happy spirit made 
him the center of life in pension activities and with his travel- 
ing companions. Starting off for the University every morn- 
ing before the other members of the household had breakfasted, 
he worked with the urgency of one who has much to accom- 
plish in a time far too short. He looked upon the year as a 
period for self-development in which to fit himself to do better 
work for his college and for Christ. ‘For their sakes I sanc- 
tify myself” was his motto. 

The following letter written to his parents from Berlin 
January 16, 1908, throws such a strong light on his character 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 57 


—his human fun-loving side, as well as his power of self-dis- 
cipline—that it must be quoted entire: 


My dear Father and Mother: 

. This week I have been visiting the great teachers here 
in Berlin: Paulsen, von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Eric Schmidt, 
Delbriick. I have got many suggestions as to lecturing from these 
single visits. It is a great joy to be able to understand them 
all practically perfectly. I wrote a letter this week without a 
dictionary with no mistakes. I am quite proud. 

We had lots of fun in the American Church last Sunday. The 
responsive reading was Psalms I and II. The congregation is 
quite different each Sunday, so they do not always know when 
to get up or sit down. Dr. Dickie started off, “‘Blessed is the man 
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,” and about half 
of the people stood up. He continued, “nor standeth in the 
way of sinners”; the people who had stood up were looking at 
the people still seated and were meditating whether to keep 
standing when Dr. Dickie read “nor sitteth in the seat of the 
scornful.” When they got to the end of Psalm I the organist 
thought it was all over and got ready with both hands and all 
his feet to strike up an “allegro impetuoso.” Dr. Dickie started 
out to read just as the organist struck the organ with a tremen- 
dous bang. ‘‘Why do the heathen rage?”’ read Dr. Dickie. The 
organist stopped short—‘‘and the people imagine a vain thing” 
he continued. It was a very funny coincidence of fact and 
Scripture. 

With the year about half over, I am beginning to look back 
on the last five months and to plan to supplement my deficiencies 
in the remaining five. When I decided to come abroad I wrote 
down in my book to advance in all four parts of my make-up by 
this year of vacation and privilege—in body, mind, heart, and 
soul—physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. 

Spiritually—my special task is nearly finished. I have practi- 
cally completed the twenty-six studies on “The Teaching of 
Jesus and His Apostles Regarding the Will of God.” I now 
have my theory and philosophy of life systematized, on which 
my future work in history and teaching must rest. It has been 
a wonderful study, to which I have given about an hour a day, 


58 Life of Henry B. Wright 


generally between 1 and 2 p.m. I shall spend the rest of my 
Bible study till next fall reading a little in the New Testament 
each day and adding to my outlines. The studies on “The 
Significance of the Life and Teaching of Jesus and His Apostles 
to the Scholar and Teacher” will be my daily Bible study during 
the next three years of my Assistant Professorship. In con- 
nection with formulating the outlines, I want to read the biogra- 
phies of all the great scholars and teachers (like Stanley, 
Thomas Arnold, Joseph Neesima, Froebel, Drummond, etc.). I 
hope that the course will be useful in the graduate schools to 
raise up more men of Christian aims as teachers. Here, then, 
are my spiritual plans for the next three years. 

Socially—I have come to know intimately one new ‘civiliza- 
tion, its history and language. The result has been very broad- 
ening in sympathy for others and recognition of my old national 
prejudices. There are fine men everywhere in the world. Before 
we go to Italy, I shall run rapidly over Henderson’s History of 
Germany again, so that I shall have in my notebook a complete 
mastery of the facts of German history. Also before we go to 
Italy, I shall make out a little notebook of facts for modern 
Italian history, and the same for Greece and Greek history. In 
the three months after our return I mean simply to go through 
Otto’s German Grammar, not touching any other new language. 
I shall read a little history of England in July. Then for next 
fall I shall take up Italian in the Graduate School and the year 
after work up French by myself with the Otto method. At the 
end of my three years, then, I shall be in touch with four modern 
civilizations and languages: English, German, French, and 
Italian. 

Intellectually—I have laid my foundations in seminar 
methods, epigraphy (+ Papyrus), and coins. Next fall I shall 
begin a regular systematic working through of Eduard Meyer’s 
Geschichte des Altertums, reading all of the sources in either 
translation (Egyptian, Persian, and Hebrew) or in the original 
(Greek and Latin). I am going to do this on cards and insert 
the new discoveries of each year in their proper places. This 
spring I shall do little more than read Pliny’s Letters and the 
parts of Polybius and Livy relating to the War with Hannibal, 
in preparation for my courses next year. 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 59 


Physically—I have learned the value of not drinking iced 
water and milk, and the great advantage of eating slowly; also 
the essential value of walking each day. I get about four miles 
a day now and keep in fine physical condition. I expect to loaf 
much more in the spring term, so as to be full of “‘glaime” in 
the fall. The trip in the spring will bring lots of inspiration 
and life. . 

Affectionately, 
Henry 


Early in the spring, Professor and Mrs. Wright took a 
long-anticipated trip of six weeks to Greece and Rome. Henry 
overflowed with enthusiasm as he visited for the first time the 
places he had come to know so well through his father’s ac- 
counts and through his own studies at Yale. He was enrap- 
tured to see at last in reality the Forum, the Colosseum, the 
Appian Way—places as familiar to him in imagination as his 
own home or the Yale Campus. 'To come to know the land of 
his beloved Homer and Plato and Praxiteles was an absorbing 
delight. Their trip included visits to Venice, Milan, Pisa, 
Rome, and Naples, in Italy. With Naples as a center, they 
made side trips to Cume, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Pestum, 
Cava, Amalfi, Sorrento, and Capri. ‘The three weeks in Greece 
were spent in Athens, with pilgrimages to Marathon, Afgina, 
Eleusis, ‘Corinth, Mycene, Delphi, and Olympia. 

Red letter days for Henry were the ones of his visits to the 
battlefield of Platea and to Delphi, where stands the founda- 
tion of the Serpent Column, the Platean votive offering, 
erected in commemoration of the Battle of Platwa, about 
which he wrote his thesis when candidate for the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy. The associations of Corinth and Mars 
Hill in Athens with the history of the early church gave these 
places a sacred significance. St. Paul lived again in his im- 
agination as he read aloud on Mars Hill to Mrs. Wright the 
seventeenth chapter of Acts. Among the ruins of the temple 
area in Olympia he held a quiet service on Easter Sunday, 


60 Life of Henry B. Wright 


with Mrs. Wright and a little Greek shepherd boy making up 
his entire congregation. 

Although Professor Wright’s style in most of his pub- 
lished articles is simple, unembellished, and direct, when he 
came to write of this visit to Greece he rose to the heights of 
almost pure poetry. The following extract is from his book, 
The Recovery of a Lost Roman T'ragedy. 


Somewhat more than a year ago, on a morning in the late 
spring, the fondest dream of a student’s life came true. Across 
the blue waters of the Atgean Sea, in the first pink flush of a 
faultless Eastern dawn, there rose to meet his eager gaze.a city 
which he had never seen, but which he yet seemed to know as if 
it had been his own. A few hours later, after the steamer had 
made its way through the remaining stretch of the Saronic Gulf 
and had dropped anchor in the quiet of the Pirzus, he found 
himself for the first time within the precincts of Attica, on the 
soil of Hellas. Few, indeed, were the hours which circumstance 
had allotted to that first springtime sojourn on ground so new 
and yet so strangely familiar—so few that many times, before the 
pilgrim had embarked upon his trip, he had even questioned the 
wisdom of attempting it at all. In three short weeks his 
pilgrimage was at an end and he had set face toward the West. 
But then neither misgivings nor regrets were in his heart. He 
was returning from the richest experience of his life. For him, 
in every place and at every hour on that enchanted soil, the cur- 
tains of time which screen the past seemed in a wondrous way 
to have parted. The din of the centuries which drowns the 
voices of old had somehow been mysteriously stilled, the battle- 
field of Greece had filled again with warring Eastern hordes and 
tiny armies of undaunted patriots. Her shrines, dimly discerned 
at first as lonely broken columns, had built themselves up, stone 
upon stone, to the semblance of their ancient beauty. Her 
agoras and streets had been filled once more with men and women 
of the Greece that was. And ever and anon, amidst the moving 
throngs of peace and war, the pilgrim had seemed to hear—so 
clearly that he could not doubt their identity—familiar voices of 
sweet cadence or of stern command, the voices which, once heard, 
remain, the undying voices of the masters of the past. 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 61 


The time which he gave to Bible study in this year abroad 
enabled him in the fall of 1909 to publish the Bible-study 
course which was destined to be one of his most far-reaching 
publications, The Will of God and a Man’s Life Work. 
For four years he had been working on the theme and had 
taught portions of the outlines. It is fair to say that this book 
is the most thorough treatment of the subject in any language. 
It ran through several editions and drew comment from 
Christian people and from many non-Christians all over the 
world. Professor Wright sent copies of the manuscript for 
criticism to fifty religious leaders, from whom he received 
many valuable suggestions. On July 15, 1909, he penned a 
note of thanks to Ernest Sheldon, ’?07, who had given him 
valuable criticism of the manuscript: 

I am more indebted to you than I can tell for the careful 
work which you put in on the revision of my Bible-study Out- 
lines. I did not realize how searching and suggestive it was till 
I came to incorporate the notes into the book. You have solved 
a difficult problem over which I was pondering with your phrase, 
“Willingness to do God’s will the necessary condition for knowl- 
edge of it.” I shall adopt it. 

You raise a question about “knowledge of truth for its own 
sake.”? When this is genuine it is precisely doing God’s will. 
But the phrase as used by many little men today is, I am con- 
vinced, a misstatement. It should read: “Knowledge of truth for 
my own sake,” and comes under the head of “fame seeking.” © 

You will hardly know the Studies when they appear. I have 
changed the name to “The Will of God and a Man’s Life Work.” 

With appreciation of your assistance, 

As ever, 
Henry 


During his busy years as teacher he was constantly im- 
proving his knowledge of languages. After their return to 
New Haven, he and his wife took much pleasure with their 
German and enjoyed a year of Italian together at Yale under 
Professor McKenzie. ‘How is the Italian going?” he once 
asked Edwin Harvey in a note. “You must keep all these 


62 Life of Henry B. Wright 


languages up after you get back to China. It requires a little 
effort at first and then it becomes so easy to talk it at a meal. 
I believe it will do a lot for home life to have a mutual intel- 
lectual interest. Too often the man absorbs all that and leaves 
the woman starved.” In letters he not infrequently fell into 
German or French or Italian. In the spring of 1911 he wrote 
in happy mood to Edwin Harvey: 


Mein lieber Eduard! 

Du bist ein ausserordentlich gutes Kind und schreibst vor- 
treffliches Deutsch. Als Lohn bekommst du von uns einen Besuch. 
Am “7ten April meinen wir Sie alle zu griissen. 

Meines Erachtens hattest du noch ein Semester in Deutschland 
vollenden sollen. Es ware schon, wenn du Marburg besuchen 
kénntest. Dort ist die Natur vortrefflich und die Professoren 
sind auch sehr beriihmt—das heisst, die Professoren der The- 
ologie. Ob die andern Facultaten so stark sind, weiss ich nicht. 
An Heidelberg ist gar nicht zu denken, wenn du wirklich zu ar- 
beiten meinst. Dort und zu Miinchen studiert man fast nie, 
besonders im Sommersemester. Uber Freiburg bin ich leider nicht 
informirt und habe jetzt nicht Zeit genug Erkundigung dariiber 
einzuziehen. 

Den Vorlesungen in Gottingen hat mein Vater beigewohnt— 
zwei Semester—denke ich. Die Universitat ist fiir Latinischs und 
Mathematik sehr wohlbekannt. Aber dariiber nichts weiter heute! 
Ja, wie werden wir in Hannover zusammenplaudern!! 

Die Billets sind gekauft—nach Bremen!! Von Ernst haben 
wir noch nicht gehért aber hoffentlich kommt er auch mit uns zu 
spielen. 

Ach, du lieber Hannover! LEjlenriede! Seufzenallee! Herr- 
enhausen! Marschpark! Zoologischer Garten! Koénigliches- 
schauspielhaus! und Pension Wiebe!!! Nach dreijaéhriger Tren- 
nung sehen wir sie wieder!!! 

Auf baldiges Wiedersehen, 


HerricH 


The spring of 1911 found the Wrights sailing again for 
Europe, this time to study French in the beautiful university 
town of Grenoble in the French Alps. 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 63 


The World’s Student Christian Federation was holding 
its conference that spring in Constantinople. Before begin- 
ning his work in Grenoble, Mr. Wright attended this confer- 
ence. Professor Bosworth of Oberlin and Professor Wright 
represented the American student body among the speakers. 
In his address, which was entitled “The Incarnation of Truth,” 
Henry summed up in the following words the theory of per- 
sonal evangelism on which his entire life work was based: 


Religion is imparted by contagion, not taught by words. 
Purity, honesty, unselfishness, love, the grace and truth which 
came by Jesus Christ, are not philosophical propositions to be 
accepted by the minds of men. They are actual living forces 
which spread by contagion—I almost venture to assert by con- 
tagion only—from man to man. It was our Lord Himself who 
characterized these forces in terms, not of philosophical abstrac- 
tions, but of living organisms—the seed and the leaven. All He 
asked was the opportunity of contact. 


After this conference Mr. Wright joined Mrs. Wright and 
her brother, Ernest Hayward, in Grenoble. The three had a 
summer of rich experience together. They lived in the home of 
a University teacher of phonetics, who tutored each of them 
separately for an hour each day. They attended lectures at 
the University, where they worked with Professor Rosset who 
was giving special instruction in phonetics to foreigners. Pro- 
fessor Wright and Ernest Hayward reveled in frequent ex- 
cursions into the Alps in the neighborhood of Grenoble, and 
had considerable experience in mountain climbing. In vaca- 
tion days the three visited friends in Germany, and made a 
short trip to Italy and to many places in France noted for 
their natural beauty or their historical associations. It was a 
glorious six months, full of work and play. 

While in France Professor Wright spent a stated period 
each day working on the Bible-study material he was planning 
to use in a course for graduate students and faculty Bible 
classes, “Jesus’ Message to the Teacher and Scholar.” The 


64 Life of Henry B. Wright 


outline for this course he had worked up before he went to 
France, and during the six months there he filled in the detail 
and completed the twenty-five studies. 

About six months after his return from France, early in 
March of 1912, he was stricken with broncho-pneumonia, and 
this illness proved to be a very serious one. He was unable 
to resume his classes even on part time till January, 1913, 
and was not able to take up full time work again till the 
following September. 

Henry Wright had entered upon his teaching career a 
disciplined personality, conscientious in scholarship, and 
trained in the division and use of time, determined to fill the 
years ahead with useful labor as a teacher of the classics. 
But in college days he had dedicated himself to Christ, and to 
do God’s will meant that during these years of teaching he 
often had to give up following lines of research, already fairly 
well in hand, to give his time, and mind, and heart to men who 
sought his help. This was the renunciation of work for which 
he had a passion and for which he was well equipped. It 
meant often giving up what is in many ways the most precious 
thing to a college professor—his full chance for quiet re- 
search, to publish, to achieve a reputation. But while he was 
gladly sacrificing, as he thought, his chance for future success 
in a teaching career, in order to help men find Christ, he was 
unconsciously becoming more and more expert in a field where 
there was a growing demand for men. Long years of being a 
friend to all who needed help in their sins and griefs had 
developed in him a unique power, compelling men towards 
goodness and unselfishness and sacrifice. He had become a 
specialist in winning souls. 

Colleges that were looking for men of moral leadership to 
fill executive positions had already begun to recognize him as 
one of the type for which they were seeking. He was offered 
the vice-presidency of a well-known college, to rank above five 
deans of departments, with a salary much larger than he ever 
received at Yale. He was offered, also, the directorship of 


As a Teacher in Yale College and a Winner of Souls 65 


religious work at a great state university, and the presidency 
of a western college. He refused these and other offers, think- 
ing that he had a larger field of usefulness at Yale. 

But when in 1914 the Yale Divinity School called him to 
its newly established professorship of Christian Methods, he 
accepted the chair, and henceforth gave himself increasingly 
to the work for men and for Christ that he loved. 


CHAPTER VI 
IN THE COLLEGES AND AT CONFERENCES 


Integer vite scelerisque purus, 

Non eget Mauris jaculis, nec arcu, 

Nec venenatis gravida sagittis, 
Fusce, pharetra. 


Sive per Syrtes iter estuosas, 

Sive facturus per inhospitalem 

Caucasum, vel que loca fabulosus 
Lambit Hydaspes. 


Pone sub curru nimium propinqui 

Solis, in terra domibus negata; 

Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo 
Dulce loquentem. 


F one would understand the student life of America at its 

best during the last three decades, he should turn to the 

student conferences, for there are focused the aspira- 
tions of Christian youth in its highest mood of dedication. 
Each June found Henry Wright with Yale’s delegation at 
Northfield, there to feel the expansive power of a great move- 
ment. Contact with men of other colleges and of other na- 
tions liberated him from narrow loyalties and purely local 
enthusiasms. ‘The essential solidarity of the Christian Student 
Movement throughout the world became apparent; the romance 
and extent of foreign missions gripped his soul. While still an 
undergraduate he gave much time to various relief works, 
missionary efforts, and conferences of the World’s Student 
Christian Federation, which had been organized through the 
vision and efforts of J. R. Mott, Karl Fries, Luther Wishard, 
Pastor Eckhoff, and others, at Vadstena, Sweden, in 1897. 

66 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 67 


For over twenty years he was active in raising delegations 
to various student conferences. The climax of his year at 
Yale was always the Northfield Student Conference, and for 
this he generally recruited well over a hundred delegates, the 
largest number from any college. The number of men who 
went to Northfield, and the number who decided to go into 
missions and the ministry were, in his opinion, the two surest 
external tests which could be applied to Christian work at 
Yale. Among all the events of the college year making for 
emancipation of the spirit and dedication of life, he placed 
the student conferences first. Throughout the year he prayed 
for the gatherings at Northfield, Silver Bay, Seabeck, Hol- 
lister, Blue Ridge, Estes Park, Asilomar, and Black Moun- 
tain. ‘These gatherings he considered not only the best place 
to receive information and inspiration concerning Christian 
movements, but also the best atmosphere in which to make 
life-work decisions. 

Experience at Northfield revealed the fact that he had 
singular power as a Bible-study leader. For years he con- 
ducted not only Bible classes but also teacher-training groups 
and classes in personal work. This led to many calls from 
other colleges. He avoided speaking to great crowds, as his 
voice did not carry effectively in large places. In groups 
ranging from half a dozen to two or three hundred he was 
at his best. In college campaigns conducted by other speakers 
he often worked behind the scenes, preparing local men to 
conserve results of public addresses; this resembled Drum- 
mond’s work for Moody in the inquiry rooms in English and 
Scotch cities. 

Because of conflict between the early date of the Northfield 
Conference in 1906 and the late date of the Yale Commence- 
ment, the leaders of the Yale Christian Association decided to 
conduct a conference at the Hotchkiss School, June 30 to 
July 9. The venture proved to be a great success, with over 
one hundred men in attendance. Professor Wright was at 
that time working on his Bible course, “The Will of God,” but 


68 Life of Henry B. Wright 


it had not yet taken the form in which he published it. Many 
of the ideas later embodied in this work he gave in a course to 
the men at this conference, entitled “Some Traits which Go to 
Make Up a Man.” ‘The studies were: 


I. Honesty. VII. Steadfastness, Pur- 
II. Purity. pose, Faithfulness. 
III. Courage. VIII. Thrift and Industry. 
IV. Self-reliance — Inde- IX. Courtesy, Chivalry 
pendence. (Unselfishness). 
V. Mastery of the Body. X. Self-expression (Love). 


VI. Mastery of the Mind. 


These studies so impressed themselves upon the minds of the 
students that they requested him to publish the outlines, and 
this he did. He presided throughout the conference and was 
the soul of the whole affair. Professor Phillips of Yale, the 
distinguished mathematician, who was a member of the govern- 
ing board of the Hotchkiss School at that time, wrote to him 
regarding the conference: 


The Bellevue, Intervale, N. H. 
July 15, 1906 
Dear Henry: 

I write to tell you how much I appreciate your most suc- 
cessful labors in the conduct of your conference at Lakeville. 
From Mr. Buehler’s letters especially I can understand what a 
great spiritual help and uplift it has been to the school. Your 
genius in planning this and your energy and skill in executing 
the plan cannot be too highly regarded, and I know I voice the 
sentiment of the Trustees in expressing the great debt of grati- 
tude we owe you. 

I have always had an ambition to see this school become one 
of the really great schools of the country in scholarship and in 
moral and spiritual tone, and I thank you most sincerely for all 
you have contributed to this end. . ; 

Affectionately yours, 
AnprREew W. PHILLIPs 


THE INCARNATION OF TRUTH 


You and I have lived in little communi- 
ties of men for the past twelve months. 
Have impartial judges noticed with aston- 
ishment the silent spread from man to man 
of pure ideals, of honest declarations, of 
unselfishness, of loving sacrifice? Have 
you and I had anything to give, anything 
contagious—not theories but living, irresist- 
ible forces? Or, in spite.of many ‘earnest 
appeals from the platform, have the forces 
of evil apparently gained ground where you 
and I stood as leaders?, What~is the reason 
and who is to blame? Let Paul answer. 
“Tf thou art confident that thou thyself art 
a guide of the blind, a light of them that 
are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish 
. . . thou therefore that teachest another, 
teachest thou not thyself? Thou that 
preachest a man should not steal, dost 
thou steal? thou that sayest a man should 
not commit adultery, dost thou commit 
adultery?” Let us never forget that the 
evangelistic purpose of the Student Move- 
ment is to be ultimately realized by what we 
are, not by what we say. 

Now granted that you and I possess 
this something contagious about ourselves; 
granted that we have something to give, 
there are, it seems to me, four qualifications 
which we shall strive to develop in order 
that the contagion with men may be best 
effected. With these every one of us may 
be an effective evangelist. The first of 
these is an accurate and thorough-going 
knowledge of the spiritual anatomy of 
man, the pathology of the human soul. 
We must know when to give. “He, the 
Christian worker,” says Drummond, “should 


9 





Facsimile Page of Incarnation of Truth 
69 


70 Life of Henry B. Wright 


The Lake Geneva Conference Committee invited him for 
their sessions in June of 1907. During his stay there he re- 
ceived a note from his mother, to which he responded with a 
long letter revealing the intimacy which existed between him- 
self and his parents: 


Lake Geneva Conference 
Williams Bay, Wis. 
June 18, 1907. 
My dear Mother: 

Your note, which was the sweetest that I ever received from 
anybody in this world, reached me just after I had returned from 
one of the meetings in which I had taken part, and I then and 
there thanked God for my parents and what my home had meant 
to me. 

If I have been healthy as a baby and as a young man, it is 
solely due to the care which you and Father have taken of me. 
When I see so many good men handicapped even in religious work 
by ill health and by practices which took hold upon them because. 
of defective early training, I never cease to thank God day and 
night for my home. Really, I do not know what it is to be sick 
or nervous. I sleep every night, even when work is hardest at 
Yale, as soundly and as sweetly as a little child. And that I owe 
to you and Father. It is a precious heritage, more costly than 
all the wealth of the richest man. 

And then how often I think of my moral heritage—a life saved 
by the care of you two from those mistakes of young manhood 
which, while they do not utterly destroy one’s power, always make 
it less than it might have been. I owe to you and Father entirely 
the joy and peace of the unhindered, unspotted life and any suc- 
cess which I may have in speaking. 

And then you say that I never gave you an anxious thought. 
If this is true, it is because I had such a true mother that the 
vision of her love always came before me when I might have been 
tempted to do wrong. 

And now about the little separation. If I allowed myself to 
forget God and the teachings of Christ I might be lonely, but I 
never am when I do not. It was strange, but I found myself just 
as much at home out in the West as at Northfield within an hour 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 71 


after I arrived. There is a compensation in all absence. You 
get to know the real heart of your loved ones better through their 
letters than you could if you were with them. We write many 
things which we do not say. That has been one of the great 
compensations of my long engagement with Josephine: I know 
her heart and soul better than if we had always lived together 
after the engagement. Then, too, you think more of your loved 
ones and their sacrifices when you are absent, so really you are 
closer to them than when you are at home. 

I feel that it is God’s call for me to go abroad next year to 
prepare myself for larger usefulness at Yale. I shall regard my 
history work at Berlin as just as truly foreign missionary work as 
work in China. I have taken as my motto Christ’s words, “For 
their sakes I sanctify myself.’ ‘Their sakes”—that is, the men 
of Yale—‘I sanctify myself’—in this case more mental dis- 
cipline, to be able to help them when I return. But at the end 
of it all is the blessed vision of home again with you and Father 
after a year of absence. 

Love to all, 
Henry 


A. J. Elliott, in charge of the work in the Lake Geneva 
region, said: “I can now visualize the students waiting in 
numbers in front of his tent for an opportunity to interview 
him personally and I recall distinctly how student after stu- 
dent came to me, bearing testimony of how helpful Henry had 
been to them not only in class but in personal interviews.” 

The Northfield Conference Committee each spring called 
upon him to teach the training group for Bible-class leaders, 
in addition to which he generally conducted a large class in 
personal evangelism for selected groups of students. On July 
5, 1909, he wrote to his wife from Northfield: 


It is wonderful how God uses a little thing which one does, in 
a mighty way. When I was able to get hold of I 
never anticipated that it would go beyond Yale. He went down 
to Pennsylvania State College this spring and told the simple 
story of our experience, with the result that the body of 1,300 








72 Life of Henry B. Wright 


men was just overturned. They have a great crowd here at 
Northfield of the most earnest men I have ever seen. ‘They 
expect to have 1,000 men in daily Bible study next fall. They 
all knew me as soon as I came, for he had told them my name. 
They just flocked about me here and come to me with their 
problems, and I cannot refuse to go to them on September 17-20 
for the opening of college. It has been a great joy to me to 
see it all. 

I have been working hard all day today in the happiest kind 


of work. 


In his work in other colleges he became acquainted with 
Frank N. D. Buchman and spent some days with him at 
Pennsylvania State College in the fall of 1909, training lead- 
ers for the year’s work. 

The volume, The Will of God and a Man’s Life Work, 
was published in 1909 and Professor Wright immediately sent 
a copy to Buchman, to whom he had dispatched other Bible- 
study material from time to time. The latter replied: 


Dear Henry: 

Glad to get your postal—it makes the day go better. Your 
book has just come and I am delighted with it. Am introducing 
it not only in our Senior classes, but am teaching it myself to 
about a hundred short-course men at a class meeting on Sunday 
morning at nine. We have them for three months. Think it is 
admirably adapted to them for daily study. Those pregnant 
thoughts for each day will make the daily study exceedingly 
helpful and practical. Have but one regret—that I cannot have 
you as a normal-class leader, and your suggestions in it. Do 
you realize (I don’t think you can, fully) how you have revolu- 
tionized things for us here by that normal class last summer? 
Have been teaching ‘‘New Studies” at the Ladies’ Cottage and 
the interest there amazes me—it is the working of the Spirit. 
Went into that class with fear and trembling. This makes three 
large classes for me every Sunday morning, but I enjoy it. 

Our team took training splendidly. Want to send you some 
of the pictures. Do you remember Captain Larry Vorhis suff- 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 73 


ciently well to drop him a note congratulating him on his suc- 
cessful year? You know we didn’t lose a game. I am sure he 
will make the All-American team. Want him to go to Rochester. 
Are you going? Tell him about the spirit of your team at Yale 
and their interests. If he can only see it so as to give himself 
still more actively to our work! We are after the key men and 
we are getting them. 

Freshman Class going well. Have only one lesson in cold 
storage of yours and will use that tomorrow—so, if you can, send 
me some more. 

Frank 

Also, send me suggestions what to use with the Freshman 
leaders who go out to lead other Freshmen. Sorry that this 
arrangement is so one-sided—that I can’t do more for you. 


To this note Professor Wright replied: 


I shall most surely remember the man you mention for the 
next few weeks. May he be led of God aright! A letter from 
Mott of a confidential nature tells of wonderful results from 
prayer recently. With much anticipation of Lake Forest, 

I am as ever, 
HENRY 


For three weeks during the summer of 1910 Professor 
Wright taught at a Y.M.C.A. summer school at Lake Forest, 
Illinois. He wrote to a friend at this time: 


Louis Bernhardt and I are out here at the first Triennial 
Conference of the paid College Y.M.C.A. Secretaries of Amer- 
ica. We have about one hundred here; they all stay the full three 
weeks and work two hours a day in preparation for each lesson. 
It is a splendid work. Louis spoke last night with great power. 


Louis Bernhardt had had the bitter experience of twenty- 
two years in prison for bank robberies, but he had been con- 
verted and had served as superintendent of the Yale Hope 
Mission for several years. He and Professor Wright had 
developed a strong bond of affection. Bernhardt was a uni- 


7A Life of Henry B. Wright 


versity man and the two found much in common in their 
approach to many problems. The man who had experienced 
so much of the seamy side of life was very effective in inform- 
ing groups of religious workers about the temptations and 
the methods of the underworld. 

Harold A. Dalzell remarked of Professor Wright’s influ- 


ence at this conference: 


His absolute sincerity as he sought in his own life to know 
and to do God’s will opened the teaching of the Gospels in a new 
way and made Christ more real than He had ever been to me 
before. | 


A. J. Elliott said: 


In connection with our student work in the West, I question 
whether in any gathering he exercised any greater influence than 
in the Employed Secretaries’ School at Lake Forest.” Secretary 
after secretary went away from that conference with a new 
passion to do personal work because of their contact with Henry. 
No one will ever be able to estimate the influence in life: work 


decision of his book, “The Will of God.” 


From Lake Forest he wrote to his wife on August 10: “I 
was really very happy to have a man tell me today, who is 
not taking my course, that the boys felt I was getting a lot 
of hard work out of them. ‘That is a teacher’s best reward.” 
Three days later he wrote: ‘“‘We have already worked out 
in consultation ‘The Message of Jesus to the Farmer’ for the 
agricultural schools and ‘The Message of Jesus to the Physi- 
cian’ for the medical schools; so you see I have some work 
outside the hour of teaching.” At the close of the conference, 
on August 26, he again wrote to Mrs. Wright: “I have just 
finished my last Bible class. It is a real relief to have the 
work done, but it has been such a rich experience that I do 
not mind being tired.” 

Another visit was made to Pennsylvania State College in 
the fall of 1910, to assist Buchman at the beginning of the 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 75 


college year. Bible study, cleanness of life, prayer, methods 
of combating campus evils, and the importance of conse- 
crated leadership in the place of command were discussed in 
a series of conferences. 

A little over a year later, in September of 1911, Buchman 
wrote to Professor Wright about a contemplated series of 
meetings: 


My dear Henry: 

I have been waiting for guidance in reference to your visit to 
State College. Everything now points to the first Sunday in 
February, and I am planning to have Mercer here at the same 
time. Want you to lead our campaign for us and would lke 
you to spend at least four days, giving your time to interviews 
and one large meeting every day, with the exception of Sunday. 
My present plan is to have Mr. and Mrs. Huston work in con- 
nection with you. Our idea is to have a Men and Religion 
Forward Movement. You are peculiarly fitted for our work here 
and have the confidence not only of the student body but of the 
faculty as well. 

I have not heard definitely from Mercer whether he can come 
at this time or not, but I am convinced that it is the Lord’s will 
that you all should work together. May I have an early word 
saying that you can come? 

Keenly anticipating this opportunity of being near you and 
working with you, I am 

Faithfully your friend, 
FRANK 


To this letter Professor Wright replied: 


I can be with you on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Febru- 
ary 2, 3, and 4. It seems almost a sure guidance that I ought 
to come. I was engaged for St. Mark’s School for February 4, 
but Mr. Thayer wrote a change, leaving the date open for you. 
You must do all the planning and tell me just what to do. I'll 
come with my whole barrel of sermons. Please let me know by 
Christmas time the general line you want me to take, so that I 
may have plenty of time to study up. 


76 Life of Henry B. Wright 


The excellence of his preparations for special meetings was 
an outstanding fact about Buchman’s service at Penn State. 
He again addressed a letter to Professor Wright on December 
21, 1911, giving details of the coming campaign: 


It is gratifying to all of us to know that you can be the 
principal speaker at our Men and Religion Forward Movement. 
We plan to have a committee of two hundred men working on 
the lines laid down by the naticnal committee of the movement, 
and they will meet with Mr. Mercer on Tuesday evening, January 
30. Mercer and Mr. and Mrs. Huston will carry the group and 
large meetings until you come, and prepare the way for you. 
You will have at least three large meetings during your stay, as 
well as group meetings and interviews. I want to keep you as 
much as possible for interviews, especially with men who are 
planning to go into definite Christian service. There will be, of 
course, the talk to the Freshman Bible class and other special 
meetings which will naturally take care of themselves, as you are 
constantly prepared along these lines. You know a college 
audience and know what they need. We have had six meetings 
thus far where we had more than a thousand men present. These 
men need direction and we want to deepen their spiritual life as 
well as lead many others out into an open declaration for Jesus 
Christ. 


Professor Wright was well known and well liked at Penn 
State. In February of 1912, at the request of both Faculty 
members and the Christian Association, he participated in a 
series of evangelistic services. ‘‘I am just back from another 
tremendous three-day campaign at Penn State, with Ned 
Mercer and Dad Elliott,” he wrote to Ernest Sheldon. ‘TI 
spoke pretty nearly steadily for three days. There were over 
one hundred decisions for Christ in all. It was a glorious 
work.” 

In less than one month from the date of this visit he was 
stricken with tuberculosis. 

After two years’ absence from conferences due to his ill- 
ness, he returned to Northfield in June of 1914, there to as- 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 77 


sume once more a position of leadership and of wise counsel 
in the Bible-study program and to meet men in personal inter- 
views. He wrote to his wife from the conference: 


Henry Moore Cottage 
East Northfield, Mass. 
June 21, 1914. 

It surely was a joyful surprise after we had gone to bed 
Friday night assured that Yale was beaten at New London by a 
foot, to find on Saturday morning that she had won by three. 
And to top it all, we finished the baseball series with Harvard in 
glory yesterday—13-8. 

Last year Harvard won both and there was considerable hard 
feeling between Yale and Harvard during the entire conference; 
so I suggested to Durand Allen that we have a mock funeral cere- 
mony by the Yale and Harvard delegates Saturday night at 9.30 
and bury the hammer (for knocking) and the hatchet together. 
We bought a hammer and hatchet and tied one with a blue 
ribbon, the other with a red. Lorin Shepard made a tombstone, 
which read as follows: 

Hic Jacet 
Enmity Knocking 
Tried, Sentenced 
and Executed by 

John & Eli 

June 20, 1914 


We got Bill Warren (the football guard), Harold Vreeland and 
Bill Campbell, all six-footers, to be three of the six pall bearers 
(Harvard was to furnish three). Dick Gurley, the shortest man, 
carried the spade. Harlan P. Beach was elected funeral orator, 
with Charlie Gilkey of Harvard to pronounce the committal 
service over the grave. Promptly at 9.40 p.m., with no moon and 
the sky full of stars, we started single file, in absolute silence, 
lock-step, from the Yale quarters. I led as Master of Cere- 
monies, Lorin Shepard was next with the gravestone, then the 
three bearers with lanterns, then Dick Gurley with the shovel, 
then seventy-five Yale men behind. Not a word was spoken. 
We marched clear across the campus to the Harvard quarters— 


78 Life of Henry B. Wright 


all that could be heard was the heavy locked step. The Harvard 
men were all out on the steps waiting in absolute silence. We 
stopped in single file before them and I stepped forward and 
in sepulchral tones announced to “Brother John” the death of 
A. HAMMER and De HATCHET and invited them to join us 
in burying them. Mind you, with a hundred and fifty men, not 
a word was spoken for fifteen minutes except the ceremony. I 
invited each “John” to march side by side with an “Eh” behind 
the corpses. We marched to a spot under an apple tree, formed 
a great circle, and the exercises began. In the weird flickering of 
the lanterns, the grave was dug. Mr. Beach gave the funeral 
oration. Then the committal service was pronounced by Charlie 
Gilkey, full of jokes but with a sober face, and the grave was 
covered and the tombstone planted. Then we sang one verse 
each of “Fair Harvard” and “Bright College Years” and each 
cheered the other. Everybody is everybody’s friend today. It 
has had a great influence on the conference for unity. 

We are having a simply wonderful conference. My hardest 
day is over tomorrow, when I speak or teach three times; after 
that, only once a day. I am keeping well and think of your help 
all the time. It is such a joy to be here with a single purpose, 
touching the lives of men. 


After the Northfield Conference in 1914 an event occurred 
which marked a turning point in the history of the Christian 
Student Movement in New England and the Middle Atlantic 
states. For two weeks, from June 30 to July 14, forty-three 
secretaries and other leaders came together at Williams Col- 
lege to receive training and formulate plans for the next 
college year. A simple schedule was arranged, consisting of 
three class hours and one period for discussion of principles 
and methods each day. An evening devotional meeting was 
held by the Wiliams Haystack Monument, where in a prayer 
meeting over a century before the American Board of Com- 
missioners for Foreign Missions had originated. 

Amid these beautiful surroundings in the heart of the New 
England hills, men participated in what was for many the 
most vital spiritual experience of their lives. For some it 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 79 


meant initial consecration; for all it meant a deepening of in- 
sight and determination. This conference, begun as a sum- 
mer school, quickly changed into a vital fellowship character- 
ized by eagerness for spiritual reality and frank sharing of 
religious experiences. 

It is fair to say that for some time prior to 1914 there had 
been a period of spiritual indifference in the New England 
colleges. Although good religious work had been carried for- 
ward at many points, there were few places where there was 
marked and sustained spiritual vitality. Something of the 
formalism which had so often arrested spiritual movements 
in New England had permeated the colleges and schools; 
the striking result of the Williamstown Conference was that 
this lethargy, to a large extent, disappeared. Henry Wright’s 
influence through his personal friendship and his course on 
the “Personal Life and Relationships of the General Secre- 
tary” was the greatest single force in the conference for build- 
ing up its spiritual solidarity. A noticeable characteristic of 
his work at this conference was that although he held strong 
convictions he employed Christian charity and inclusiveness. 


One who attended, wrote: 


He was more concerned in building up life than in promulgat- 
ing any particular hobby. There was no compromise; neither 
was he divisive or schismatic; we knew that he was sent of God 
because he was clothed in the garments of humility and love. The 
spirit of Henry Wright lives as an eternal witness to the power 
of speaking the truth in love. 


The youth of the men who attended was a noteworthy 
feature of the conference, two-thirds being less than five years 
out of college and one-half having graduated within the two 
preceding years. Herman Lum, captain of the track team 
and President of the Association at Pennsylvania State Col- 
lege, attended as a Junior. Francis Miller came from Wash- 
ington and Lee, having just graduated: during the succeeding 
college year he traveled in the interests of the Student Depart- 


80 Life of Henry B. Wright 


ment of the International Committee in the preparatory schools 
of New England and the Middle Atlantic states. Henry W. 
Hobson and Morgan P. Noyes, both of the Class of Yale ’14, 
began their work in September as General Secretary and Aca- 
demic Secretary, respectively, of the Yale Association. The 
former stayed on a second year as Secretary of the Christian 
Association of the Sheffield Scientific School. Ernest Hedden, 
Williams 715, and president of the Williams Christian Associa- 
tion, acted with John Gibson, another Williams man, as hosts 
for the conference. Later Hedden was Boys’ Secretary at 
Detroit and then went to Constantinople to engage in work for 
boys in the Y. M.C. A. Youthful leadership was an outstand- 
ing feature of the gathering. 

Three results of importance to the student work in the 
East in the years following emerged from the “Williamstown 
Conference,” as it came to be known. 

The first was the enhancement of spiritual life which came 
to individual men. Professor Wright quietly began a small 
group which met just before bedtime for prayer and fellow- 
ship. No attempt was made to exclude any one; those who 
were a trifle timid at first soon came into the group and in a 
few days it included all the delegates. Along with this there 
was much quiet, unhurried counsel together. A mood of intel- 
lectual and spiritual honesty pervaded the group, coupled with 
an eagerness to discover the will of God for individual lives. 
In the midst of such congenial surroundings many men for the 
first time had opportunity to confront in unhurried fashion 
the problem of investing their lives. Men still speak of these 
two weeks together in the valley of decision as they mention 
great crises in their lives. The conference was a turning point 
for most of those who attended: some went on to larger useful- 
ness and power; a few who could not yield full allegiance 
turned back sorrowfully. A notable fact about the meeting 
was that although the implications of Christ’s teachings were 
held up in all their merciless searching power to men with a 
life upon their hands, and although some made the great re- 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 81 


fusal, there was little or no criticism of the leaders who were 
responsible for these direct and penetrating appeals for total 
_consecration to God’s service. 

A second result of the conference was the renewal of re- 
ligious life that ensued in the Eastern colleges. During Febru- 
ary of the following winter Sherwood Eddy, Yale ’918., con- 
ducted a campaign at Yale which affected the whole Uni- 
versity. John R. Mott spoke at a series of special meetings at 
Pennsylvania State College under the leadership of Herman 
Lum as President of the Association and Frank N. D. Buch- 
man as secretary. For the first time in a decade a spiritual 
solidarity was achieved among the leaders of the college Chris- 
tian Associations in the East. ‘‘More than in any similar gath- 
ering we had a sense of great events impending,” said Francis 
Miller, “and our complete unity of purpose as we set out to 
take part in them.” During the two years following Williams- 
town, one after another of the New England college Associa- 
tions formed inner circles similar to the Williamstown group— 
small, unadvertised fellowships of students committed to going 
anywhere or doing anything for Christ and His Kingdom. 
They carried through evangelistic campaigns which made a 
profound impression upon student life and thought. The 
providential availability of men like Raymond Robins, Charles 
D. Hurrey, Sherwood Eddy, John R. Mott, and others, for 
leadership in these campaigns accelerated this movement. 
Such colleges as Williams, Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 
lege, University of Maine, Dartmouth, Worcester Polytechnic 
Institute, and Cornell had campus-wide evangelistic efforts 
for the first time in years. 

The third result of the conference was the enlarged con- 
ception which many received of the Student Association Move- 
ment as a whole. Plans were formulated for a national gather- 
ing to be held at Blue Ridge, North Carolina, the following 
summer to do for the national group what Williamstown had 
done for the men of the East. This plan was carried through 


82 Life of Henry B. Wright 


with the result that more than one hundred men met at Blue 
Ridge for a three weeks’ conference in the summer of 1915. 

A healthy balance was achieved between technical instruc- 
tion in Association methods, religious teaching, and spiritual 
experience. Henry Wright was intensely interested in the 
practical duties of an Association secretary and in the effici- 
ency of his methods of work, knowing that these are essential 
means of glorifying God. Under the inspiration of his teach- 
ing, organization was not a despised encumbrance but a 
sacrament, for those who had eyes to see and ears to hear. 

In addition to Professor Wright, the Williamstown group 
had valuable leadership in David R. Porter, Clarence P. Shedd, 
Frank N. D. Buchman, and several others experienced in 
Association work among students. 

Much of the power of the conference lay in the quiet work 
of the patient scholar from New Haven, diagnosing spiritual 
difficulties and stimulating men to make decisions, most often in 
the direction of sacrifice and persistent toil. For some the 
discovery of the first best plan for their lives meant going to 
seminary in preparation for the ministry; ‘for others it meant 
graduate work and teaching; for some, the student secretary- 
ship. Every man present felt that he had been mentally and 
spiritually examined and empowered for the years ahead. 
The experience was one which sometimes comes in retreats of 
this nature—a visitation seldom repeated. 

Pennsylvania State College again invited Professor Wright 
to participate in a campaign in February, 1915, which, for the 
size of the group of outside helpers called in to assist, for num- 
bers of interviews, and for the extent of fraternity house meet- 
ings, was a unique series of student evangelistic meetings. 
John R. Mott was the chief speaker. Professor Wright con- 
ducted a series for the Faculty, using the best topics in his 
course on “The Message of Jesus for the Scholar and the 
Teacher.” Dr. Mott was at his best, and a mood of inquiry 
was evident throughout the entire college. Buchman was a 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 83 


master at connecting men with those who could be of greatest 
help. There were interviews every hour of the day and until 
after midnight. Every man from outside was assigned a secre- 
tary who planned for him hour by hour, scheduled inter- 
views, and arranged all details. It was an effective plan, now 
much used in college and general evangelistic work here and 
abroad. Nine men came on from Yale: Henry Hobson, 
Morgan Noyes, William DeWitt, Harold Vreeland, Walker 
Swift, Alvin Gurley, William Campbell, Henry Wright, 
Raymond Culver, and myself. Men were discussing vital 
issues of life on every portion of the campus; moral earnest- 
ness was in the air. The manager of one of the major 
athletic teams insisted on seeing Professor Wright at 1:30 in 
the morning, to put himself on record as a sincere follower of 
Christ. On the last day, at midnight, a special sleeping car 
departed with helpers who had come down from Yale, Prince- 
ton, Rutgers, Lafayette, and other colleges in the vicinity of 
New York City. Many students came to the train to thank 
individuals who had helped them in their perplexities and to 
wish the group Godspeed. ‘They had participated in great 
adventure on the highest plane. That night a happy and 
thoughtful group steamed eastward through the snow! 

Buchman sent Professor Wright a check to cover expenses, 
to which he replied in a letter which shows his scrupulous 
honesty : 


My dear Frank: 

I have just received from the International Committee a 
check for $3.54 for expenses to and from New York for a com- 
mittee meeting. As I attended this meeting on the way to Penn 
State and as you paid my expenses from New Haven and back, 
it is apparent that this check belongs to you. I certainly ought 
not to have double mileage for the same trip. I should feel like 
a machine politician “working” the government, if I took it. 

Lots of love, 
Henry 


84 Life of Henry B. Wright 


In March came the meetings at Yale under Sherwood 
Eddy, which are described in another chapter. Buchman and 
others came on to help. Professor Wright, on March 12, 
wrote to Buchman: 


Your kind note of the first of March, with its enclosure, 
reached me as I was starting for Buffalo to attend the meeting 
of the Religious Education Association. I thank you for your 
thought of me, but I should have been very glad to waive all 
question of an honorarium this year, for your contribution to our 
meetings was far more than any which I made to yours. 

I was glad that you could be at the News banquet on Wednes- 
day evening. For two years in succession there has been no 
liquor served at this, the greatest of our student gatherings. It 
is a distinct advance in student morale. 


From December 4 to 12, 1915, Professor Wright spoke in 
a series of religious services at the University of Pennsylvania. 
On the Bible-study Calendar which he was at that time pre- 
paring weekly for two friends at Oakham, he recorded some 
of his appointments. On December 5 he wrote: “For all 
the promises of God in Him are yea—II Cor. 1:20. I shall 
speak twice today, once at 10.30 a.m. and once at 7.45 p.m. 
This meeting will be open to all the student body at Pennsyl- 
vania. Remember me especially in prayer for this.” Decem- 
ber 6: ‘Today I shall address the Freshmen at 12.80—about 
600 students.” December 7: “It is the Sophomores today, 
about 300 in number. I shall speak on the practical use of the 
Bible.”” December 8. ‘Today I shall address the Juniors on 
‘Prayer.’ December 9: ‘My audience today is the Seniors, 
and the theme ‘A Man’s Personal Religious Life.’ ”? Decem- 
ber 10: “I shall meet 1,000 men today and talk on ‘The Choice 
of a Life Work.’ ‘Then touched He their eyes, saying, Ac- 
cording to your faith be it unto you.’—Matt. 9.29.” Decem- 
ber 11: ‘*Today will be my rest day and I shall think of my 
good friends in Oakham. ‘I am persuaded, that neither death, 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 85 


nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of 
God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord—Romans 8 :38-39.’ 
This is the last big day—meetings at 4.00 and 7.45.” Inter- 
spersed with Scripture and observations, he kept his friends 
informed in their daily Bible study of his movements at the 
great university. 

Groups in nearby colleges constantly invited him for 
addresses. His messages had a certain provocative penetra- 
tion that caused men to seek him out in interviews and write 
letters of inquiry, especially on life-work problems. On De- 
cember 26, 1915, a Williams man wrote to him: 


It was my privilege to hear you speak at the Student Volun- 
teer Conference at Wesleyan this fall and to receive from you a 
life-work decision card which I have signed. Would you kindly let 
me know where, if anywhere, I could secure a couple of dozen 
of the cards? 

My reason for asking this is as follows: Eight upperclassmen 
at Williams College got together before vacation under the con- 
viction that the spiritual life of the college must be increased, 
that college men at Williams must measure up to their responsi- 
bilities in meeting the great problems of the world in later life, 
and not drift aimlessly into the first position that is offered, and 
that therefore a secret (for the present at least) band might 
accomplish much work in our college. It would also act as the 
mainstay in Raymond Robins’ campaign in March. But we need 
some kind of pledge to bind us together and that is why I would 
like to secure more of your cards. Although our number is at 
present but eight, we feel sure that there are enough consecrated 
men in college to at least double that number. 

I have written thus in full, not merely to ask for the cards, 
but thinking that possibly you might care to send some advice as 
to exactly what we might accomplish and how to do it. 


The card mentioned read: 


86 Life of Henry B. Wright 


A CHRISTIAN MAN’S FUNDAMENTAL LIFE WORK 
DECISION 


I will live my life for God, for others rather than for myself, 
for the advancement of the Kingdom of God rather than my 
personal success. 

I will not drift into my life work, but I will do my utmost by 
prayer, investigation, meditation, and service to discover that 
form and place of life work in which I can become of the largest 
use to the Kingdom of God. 

As I find it I will follow it under the leadership of Jesus 
Christ, wheresoever it take me, cost what it may. : 


Northfield secured Henry Wright again in 1916 to con- 
duct the teachers’ training course. 'The leaders met one day 
early for prayer and planning. At the morning session, held 
in Sage Chapel, he spoke on the Morning Watch. He was 
always powerful on this subject, but on this day his address 
was especially effective. It happened that I had omitted my 
early morning devotions, hoping for a prolonged period of 
quiet in the afternoon. Coming out of the Chapel and walk- 
ing toward Stone Hall, I overtook Raymond Culver. We 
looked at each other rather sheepishly: “I am going to my 
room to get myself right to face these students,” I said. “That 
is exactly what I am doing,” replied Culver. 

Immediately after the Northfield Conference in 1916 Pro- 
fessor Wright attended a gathering of about fifty student 
secretaries at the Hotchkiss School. Professor William J. 
Hutchins of Oberlin, afterward president of Berea College, 
came on as a leader, also. The fellowship of these quiet days 
together made a deep impression upon all who attended. Mr. 
Wright gave one especially effective address on the text: 
“That I may know Hin, and the fellowship of His sufferings 
and the power of His resurrection,” concluding the talk with 
these other words of Paul: “If I should say I know Him not, 
I should be a liar.” 


The Employed Officers’ Conference of the Y.M.C.A. in- 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 87 


vited him to be a leader at Silver Bay in the summer of 1919. 
Mrs. Wright accompanied him and the two had great pleasure 
later in visiting the scene of his labors at Plattsburg. Before 
college opened he also attended another important conference 
at Columbus, Ohio. 

At one conference which he attended, a colored student was 
excluded from the hostelry where the group was living, where- 
upon he made a plan that a certain number should invite the 
boy out for meals each day and see that he should receive his 
full measure of fellowship and inspiration. 

It fell to Professor Wright’s lot in the summer of 1920 
to be chosen as a leader for the summer school of the Student 
Department of the Y.M.C.A. held on the campus of Lake 
Forest College. Nearly one hundred secretaries from colleges 
and universities across the country were gathered here for a 
three weeks’ period of training. He used his course on “‘Per- 
sonal Evangelism,” illustrated with recent adventures of his 
own in the art of winning men. Samuel M. Shoemaker re- 
counts an incident which occurred during this summer school. 
He had been talking with Professor Wright about presenting 
distinctively Christian work, as a challenge to men, on a rather 
large scale, and asked his advice as to whether it was wise and 
fair to face men with it very often. Professor Wright replied: 
“The world is facing them insistently with its claims twenty- 
four hours a day. Why shouldn’t you face them with Christ’s 
claim for their lives?” In the same conversation Shoemaker 
told him of many men who said to him that they wanted to 
touch lives in a vital spiritual way and were going into medi- 
cine or teaching with that end in view, hoping to do it through 
contact in those professions; to which he rejoined: 


If a man is called to teach, let him teach. But if a man says 
that he is called to win men for Christ and he is going to teach 
in order to do it, I will tell him after twenty years’ experience 
that he cannot do it. A teacher is obligated to keep as near the 
top of his profession as he can, which requires constant research 


88 Life of Henry B. Wright 


and rewriting of lectures. One must have some recreation, and 
some of us haven’t much health. It takes time to win people. I 
have now gotten into religious work on full time, and I feel as 
free as a bird. 


Henry E. Wilson of Illinois said of his work among the 
students: ‘‘He clothed the spirit of God in flesh and blood and 
made it a living thing among us.” J. E. Johnson of South 
Carolina remarked of this conference: ‘‘All of the secretaries 
were drawn very close to him at that time, and I immediately 
asked him for a trip through the colleges of South Carolina.” 

Upon Johnson’s invitation he made his first trip to the 
South in the spring of 1921, visiting Washington and Lee, the 
University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia, Georgia 
Institute of Technology, the three State colleges for men in 
South Carolina, Tuskegee, the University of Alabama, Vander- 
bilt, Erskine College, and Clemson College. At each point a 
profound impression was made upon the groups which heard 
him. In March he wrote a note to Mr. and Mrs. Monta C. 
Smithson which gives some of his impressions on this mission: 


Charleston, S. C., March 21, 1921. 
Dear Monta and Emma: 

I am down here where they grew the soldiers Monta com- 
manded overseas, and they surely are an interesting lot. I have 
never seen the negro on his native heath before. But I under- 
stand American history better since I have been below Mason 
and Dixon’s line. The South has a difficult problem, but it is 
meeting it manfully with the Interracial Conference. 

At Columbia I saw the Baptist Church in which the decision 
to secede was made. King took me in his auto out to see two old 
southern plantations—the Heath, beautifully kept up, and Wade 
Hampton’s, which Sherman destroyed on the March to the Sea. 
The slave quarters were still there, the latter now occupied by 
free tenants. Only the pillars of the mansion remained. 

Charleston reminds me much of southern France. There is 
the same dust and heat and easy, carefree life. The presence of 
thousands of sailors adds an interesting element in the com- 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 89 


munity. Life is still cheap. There has been a report of a lynch- 
ing in the paper every day since I arrived. But they haven’t any 
use for booze or booze-runners in these parts!! 

Tonight I go clear across the state up into the Blue Ridge 
Mountains near Tennessee. I expect it will be cooler there. I 
am to speak at Clemson College on Wednesday and Thursday. 
All the colleges here are military and the discipline is pretty stiff. 

I have enjoyed my institutes greatly. The plan has worked 
successfully, so that I can get at exactly the men I want. The 
men are very responsive, and the South is contributing a lot to 
the ministry and to missions. 


“T have had some beautiful letters as results of the personal 
evangelism institutes,” he wrote in August. “There is no 
substitute for God. One man recently restored thirty-five 
dollars which he took ten years ago.” 

Something which might almost be termed a movement for 
week-end personal evangelism institutes grew up in the spring 
and fall of 1921 in the New England colleges. Charles S. 
Campbell, who since has been chairman of the Student Depart- 
ment, conducted one at the Massachusetts Institute of T’ech- 
nology. Professor Wright visited Bates, Middlebury, the 
University of Maine, the University of Vermont, Williams, 
Dartmouth, and Brown, in the same interest. ‘These small 
gatherings were in the nature of retreats, wherein men already 
committed to the Christian way of life were fortified in their 
faith and instructed in the theory and method of communicat- 
ing to others the essential truths and implications of Christ’s 
teachings. In each college lives were permanently transformed 
by the conferences and interviews. 

Silver Bay called him to lead the teachers’ training class 
in conjunction with Professor A. Bruce Curry, in June of 
1921. The two supplemented each other beautifully, the 
former emphasizing the direct enhancement of life which it was 
possible to bring to men through personal evangelism and the 
latter opening up and explaining the Scriptures. One night, 
after Stitt Wilson had delivered an unusually powerful ad- 


90 Life of Henry B. Wright 


dress even for that eccentric and saintly prophet, Professor 
Wright and I went apart under some trees to talk over matters 
concerning the Yale delegation and summer plans. Our minds 
were full of the address. He said: 


There is a new note among the speakers. Something addi- 
tional] is rising up in the life of our time. These talks by Sher- 
wood Eddy and Stitt Wilson are not usual talks. There is a new 
greatness about them; such speaking only comes when great 
issues are up. My father told me how it came in the days before 
the Civil War in the anti-slavery fight. In the years ahead we 
shall be examining all our social and economic life. Perhaps we 
are all on the wrong road; we must study the matter. 


From then on until his death he read books on various labor 
movements, upon the wishes and aims of radicals and agi- 
tators, and the application of Christ’s teachings to social and 
economic life. We talked a very long time about the con- 
ference and individual men. Bishop McDowell had given his 
famous talk on the boy with the loaves and fishes in the morn- 
ing, and in the evening in the open air beside the lake he had 
addressed us on “An All-round Personality,” using as his out- 
line: “I am, I can, I ought, I will.” It was a time at the 
conference when many were in the mood of decision and were 
coming to Professor Wright and to others with their problems. 
After prayer we sought out our sleeping places in the 
darkened camp. In August he dispatched a note to me in 
Paris: “The night I left you at Silver Bay about 11 p.m., 
after prayer together, a fellow met me at the corner of the 
house who was in the English Army and who strayed into 
our training group by accident. He had to get something 
right that night.” 

Upon the urgent request of several colleges, Professor 
Wright journeyed south again in the fall of 1921. J. E. 
Johnson said: 


At Wofford College and Furman University, the same draw- 
ing power was manifest and men’s lives were changed by his 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 91 


coming. Five men out of the senior class at Wofford decided to 
attend the Yale Divinity School after hearing him there. We 
had hoped to have him in our State again this Spring. 


The experience in South Carolina was duplicated at 
Davidson College, North Carolina State, and the University 
of North Carolina. The Secretary at Davidson College 
affirmed that no evangelist who had ever visited their college 
met with the response that came to him. Something of the 
strenuousness of his schedule is revealed in a letter dated 
November 7 to Leonard Wood, who was then in the University 
of Virginia: 


It has been some time since you heard from me, but I have 
not forgotten you. Jo and I remember you in prayer almost 
every morning and I think of you especially today, for about 
1.06 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) morning I shall be going through 
Charlottesville on my way to Spartanburg, South Carolina, 
where I begin my two weeks of lectures at Wofford College, 
Erskine College, Furman College, University of South Carolina, 
Davidson, and University of North Carolina. I speak thirty 
times in the two weeks. 


Calls were insistent that he again visit the South in the 
spring of 1922, and although he was not at all well he con- 
sented to make the journey. J. E. Johnson said of this trip: 


I was with him for two days at Erskine College, and some 
of the most intimate problems of life were discussed at that time. 


G. W. Bergthold of Alabama Polytechnic wrote: 


He visited us for a three day meeting with some of our 
Christian Association leaders in 1922. I believe I am not over- 
stating the facts when I say that no man has ever gotten so close 
to that group of students, and made God and Christ so real to 
them, as did Henry Wright on that occasion. The earnestness 
with which the students took what he had to give is indicated by 
the fact that the meetings were held before breakfast on two days, 


92 Life of Henry B. Wright 


and that at each of these meetings not one of the men who had 
been invited was absent. 


At that time he also visited Washington and Lee Univer- 
sity and the State universities of Alabama, Georgia, and 
‘Tennessee. He wrote to Dean Brown: 


It seems as if I had been absent a whole term. I have had 
no news from Professor Sneath and am anxious to get at the 
endowment with him. I have kept in the best of health and have 
had many rare spiritual experiences with these fine boys. 


To Raymond Culver he wrote on March 22 from Nash- 
ville: 


Just a line in the lull of a Sunday morning between the eight 
forty-five minute addresses they have given me here in thirty-six 
hours. I have a fine body of students and the messages have been 


used of God. 


Fellowship with E. B. Schultz, J. E. Johnson, G. W. 
Bergthold, Preston Holtzendorf, Dwight Chalmers and other 
leaders in these colleges was an immense enrichment of life for 
him. Contact with the South produced an expansion of in- 
terest not unlike the result of foreign travel. 

Persistent invitations came to him to conduct personal 
evangelism training groups in colleges in distant parts of the 
country. In January, 1923, he requested A. R. Elliott, in 
charge of the Student Department of the Y. M. C. A. in the 
Southwest, to arrange on paper a specimen two weeks’ trip in 
order that he might see what it would require. He wrote: 


I probably could not come this spring, for I am just over a 
four months’ illness with boils and carbuncles, with complica- 
tions, which forced me to give up all outside engagements. I 
might be able to get it in next year. I mean to be with you just 
as soon as I am physically able. 


Again on April 28, 1923, he wrote to Elliott: 


In the Colleges and at Conferences 93 


You will receive soon under separate enclosure our new 
Y.M.C.A. Training Group Bulletin for 1923-1924. In addition 
to the courses listed there I have this morning agreed to give a 
two-hour seminar on Evangelism with Students, taking up all the 
_ different kinds—mass, group, and individual. The request came 
from our prospective student secretaries in the schools. I am 
much better. I think I can be with you next spring for the two- 
or two-and-one-half weeks’ trip. 


In December in an intimate letter to A. R. Elliott, he laid 
down some conditions for the conduct of his visits: 


My dear Roland: 
Following your former suggested schedule, the dates would be: 


University of Missouri.......... February 26, 27, 28 (1924) 
William Jewell College.......... February 29, March 1 
PUL PS WI TLLVELSIL Y ser. es tie shar alate March 2, 3 
OidahontaxUniversit yio6 wks Be ssi March 4,.')-55} 1.6 

Texas Christian University....... March 7, 8 

INIVETSILY (Of) LEXAS's'.' Joe's accra siete March 9) 10). 01 

NEMEC PICHTSur rte sa) trite eaters ar Ch LZ 

PEEBEIFULE Sel crs iatirale: Pvisl aale eee!» March 13 

PV ORURA VEL G abated ace ea va tal _._.March 14 


I do not want any preaching or addressing of chapel on this 
trip. I simply want to meet any of the Christian leaders who 
will agree to attend all five addresses of one hour each. I call 
the whole set-up a Personal Evangelism Institute. There should 
be absolutely no publicity in the college press about tt. The five 
talks come generally at 4 and 7 p.m. the first day and 4, 7 and 
8 p.m. the next. Of course, if other hours are free from recita- 
tion, use them. The meeting wants to be in the nature of a 
retreat in a quiet place where we will be undisturbed. I do not 
want numbers. The whole object is to deepen the lives of the 
Christian men. 

It is best for me to have a quiet room alone at night and not 
to eat at a fraternity or student club. 

These five talks are: 


94 Life of Henry B. Wright 


What are We Trying to Do? 

The Art of Meeting Men. 

The Art of Winning Men. 

The Way to God. 

. The Secret of Power. 

The main thing to insist upon is that I am not on a speaking 
tour and make no public addresses of any sort. I will go any 
distance to meet two men if they will let me have five shots at 
them. 

These conditions may seem arbitrary, but observance of them 
has had remarkable results. It goes without saying that I do not 
want to be in faculty homes or meet any social engagements. 
The time is too short. 

If I have not made myself clear, just make me do so. 
Faithfully, 

Henry 


Oe o9 BO 


But in one week more Death had cut short these and 
other plans. His influence was spreading steadily in new and 
larger fields when his summons came. 


CHAPTER VII 
THE OAKHAM STORY 


Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike 
As if we had them not. 
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 
Vincentio in ““Measure for Measure,” Act I, Scene ! 


To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; 

To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; 

To defy Power, which seems omnipotent; 

To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates 

From its own wreck the thing it contemplates; 

Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent; 

This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be 

Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; 

This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory. 

—Prrcy ByssHe SHELLEY, 

Demogorgon in “Prometheus Unbound.” 


sixteen miles west of the city of Worcester, lies the town 
of Oakham, where Henry Wright spent nearly every sum- 
mer of his life. He was early imbued with the deep affection 
of his father and mother for the home of their childhood and 
youth, but his unusual devotion to Oakham was due not simply 
to natural human affection. In Oakham he first proved his 
faith in the power of Christ to redeem. The work of his 
summers was in large measure responsible for his belief in 
personal evangelism through friendship—a theory that is 
bearing fruit in the work of his students everywhere. 
In his young boyhood his love for Oakham expressed itself 


in the whole-souled enthusiasm with which he threw himself 
95 


ihe the beautiful country of central Massachusetts, about 


96 Life of Henry B. Wright 


into all its community activities. A suggestion was made in 
1890 by the editor of the small town paper, the Oakham 
Herald, that the town needed asphalt sidewalks. Articles ap- 
peared calculated to arouse enthusiasm and to stimulate in- 
terest in the project. The scheme was ambitious, but met 
with a quick response, an Oakham Village Improvement Society 
being formed with Amory J. Holden as its first president and 
chairman of the committee on sidewalks. Dean Wright, 
Henry, and Alfred were enthusiastic about the new idea, con- 
stantly planning and talking the matter over with Mr. Holden. 

The first Oakham Field Day was held in the summer of 
1892 under the auspices of the Village Improvement Society, 
to raise money for the sidewalks. The project met with such 
success that it became an annual event and its activities con- 
stituted the chief source of funds for village improvement 
enterprises for many years, long after the sidewalks were laid. 
Field Day became the chief social occasion of the year, with 
sometimes a thousand people returning to the village for the 
day. All houses were gaily festooned, eatables and fancy 
articles were sold at booths erected in the new Town Hall or 
on the Green, and a carnival mood prevailed. There were 
parades, with a grand marshal in uniform, and decorated 
coaches with laughable “take-offs.”” A dinner was served in 
the Town Hall at noon, the rest of the day being given over 
to a program of sports, band concerts, dramatic and musical 
entertainments. 

Every year, for weeks before the actual event, Henry would 
be busily engaged in plans for Field Day. He and Alfred and 
Mr. Holden generally conceived some burlesque on current 
events for the humorous part of the parade—Coxey’s Army, 
the Boxer Uprising, the Boer War, the Fall of Port Arthur, 
the Capture of Tracy, were some of the things burlesqued. 

Later Henry had charge of field sports and ball games. 
The parade committee and the committee on advertising often 
claimed his services, and at these times he was delegated to 
construct “taking” posters and newspaper articles. Event- 


The Oakham Story 97 


ually he was made secretary of the Village Improvement 
Society and in addition to keeping the records of the Society 
and publishing several brochures on town history he con- 
structed some excellent scrapbooks, full of photographs, 
posters, announcements, and newspaper clippings, now an in- 
valuable collection of historical material. 

Town enterprises were congenial to his cooperative spirit 
and this opportunity of working with others for a common 
cause gave him keen satisfaction. Considering that his early 
life in New Haven was somewhat secluded, it is questionable 
whether he would have developed his community ideas as he 
did without these early experiences. Many times, after a field 
day, he would exclaim: “What a wonderful thing it is for the 
people of a town to have a chance to work together!” Even 
after the necessity of having a Field Day to raise funds was 
over, he advocated its continuance on the ground that it de- 
veloped a sense of unity and of responsibility in the town. 

Baseball was a favorite game with the boys in Oakham, as 
with the boys in every small town in the United States from the 
time when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and 
when Henry grew to be a young man he joined the Oakham 
team and soon became its first baseman and manager. At 
that time two or three games each season were played with 
neighboring towns, but the team was not organized nor did it 
have a regular playing field.. The players were compelled to 
use the town common or any suitable place whose owner gave 
permission. 

An idea of an Oakham Young Men’s Club gradually took 
form in Henry’s mind. While he was growing up there was 
a great deal of drinking and there were some outbreaks of 
lawlessness. Almost no additions came to the church from 
among the young people. Outsiders frequently bought farms 
and became citizens of Oakham who never went to church, or 
who, belonging to the Catholic church, quite naturally attended 
their own services in nearby towns and seldom united with the 
townspeople in community enterprises. Because of this situa- 


Oattharnr, troa., 


ge Pe are 


Ing den Nat - 


We wee Kafe andaek get 
Aone fotar BG Repfur Chet Zo nececre The 
mote Ane a Seo Oh fw A Zo vo a 
of tok aelaakl, Lai keh in Enngla~ d . Gdy Mh 


Aare manehirpar enh lend) \ounan | Races vane i fol me 
fore Reh Hite oO Remmem 3 Yr enddeng 


ORI CDI N UN SOWIE EL Oe Wy 7A NAOT ene 
Petes A CUNT GAAS SAINTE MOLI Gos 
cligfeurt 627 ACW tse ch Or One 
Seer nea PLO SO abl bu Ofr~ 
Prey beet A SALA cea Canin menrad 
POP UAG a Died 2 aa By ih AGEMENT Gs Lk ie 
dof raed. QR meoky Ad Chars 02 Ow eklirnr 2 
Zoo Od Lar Decerad abn Joo faromrad 
Agreed And Cheer Thse avr Dovreer 
appre olme ant RR hie tay Orban d. 
Tan 2 i ae a SacomI ee 
iu We feet LG IP RAD Ci 





Facsimile of Letter 
98 


DF Rope TS LR Or e022 Ae. 


Sonhk Hhoign PP ie. or Rejper Ze ma — tm fret Ze 
Hoe OGnK -9a22th  Grck Jak 4 xr 
) OE 


on Tee WR Ah er YD ct ole, — at 
JO Phen hotens rd tomy. a Aevans Jor 2 
ga Beng FieomleDit we Aatake. ah 
in Leng odaflid ga weiner. i LE Kitient med 
Bw loethlearm |) Dew (GPorbr, Fay fre Cota ch 
fe Rene /Q OE hin Oe DA pcnere hboe 
fr bow qorpar ale, pckol, — eofsaiola, tine 
Gago We g wh ar He Anrk 4 AZ 
Nigh Se bok Uthat a eclirz. educa. g~ 
7 ee, wal com ohne abe ty PS Bo AO Toe) AY ge NOCHE ER 
Ba Lp SE ORS a FAD) OTS 3 a ols AK SPD aes PDN a oF A 
eth med h ower (BU St, Lok. J 
ey gee Ze a Mint oo " Fhe. Siew preonen 4 Tor 
Af. 6 daoekiy my Jea~w © Me SED o deck” 
ICN RS Rien Eee 0 LE Cena A gil Gon 
pancee ths 
Dick ~~ TOBA OE FEAT ee FAW Woke fi thor 
Semivery fee mt Nteern~ oh 1 S00. avd Tie 
Ir. Shimer en8-Ei? 2, F2a mtd Yeurdia 
ee Vy 
Maken Pormw she Kon. On~A erothed dWasnw LO 
Foamy Cummya Uti rh, Ne ale Arnal, <bo- 
MZ BOmm. BO Ag At ak2, brrkay el. DP Cane 


Facsimile of Letter 
99 


100 Life of Henry B. Wright 


tion the Club was planned. It was to be primarily an athletic 
organization and open to everybody, Catholics and Protes- 
tants alike. The boys had been neglected and a center for 
their social life was needed. The plan was to buy a small 
one-room shop then unoccupied, to move it onto a vacant lot, fit 
it up as a clubhouse, and start some activities which would 
attract the boys. 

The scheme to form a club among the young men aroused 
some opposition in the town, but perhaps not more than any 
new enterprise has to encounter. Some one said to Henry: 
‘There is no use working among these boys; they are not worth 
saving.” He replied: ‘“‘Well, they are all the boys you have.” 
Another friend cautioned him: “You’ll never be able to do 
anything with those boys.” 'To which he rejoined: “Even if 
that is so, maybe some thoughts will be put into their heads 
that they will remember and pass on to their children, even if 
their own habits are too firmly fixed to change.” 

His purpose for his future work in the town took definite 
form in the years when he was an upper classman at Yale. A 
young friend in the town had been addicted to heavy drinking 
and seemed to be an impossible case. At Northfield and in 
Battell Chapel he had heard men preach on the Scripture: “T, 
if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” If Christ meant 
all men he meant this boy in Oakham. Henry took literally 
the promise wrapped up in the passage and applied it to his 
friend. Here was to be a test case. In his work with this boy 
he tried four main lines of approach which he described as the 
self-revelations of a friend, communicating to a man in diffi- 
culty one’s own hard struggles to cause him to understand that 
one is touched with the feeling of his infirmities; the wounds 
of a friend, the sharp, incisive, arresting action of confronting 
a man with his misdeeds; the gifts of a friend, the revealing 
of a disinterested love which stops at nothing and asks no 
reward for itself; the sacrifices of a friend, which show forth 
when all else fails the outreaching redemptive compassion of 
the Cross. Some men would yield to one approach better than 


The Oakham Story 101 


to another; men in different stages of spiritual development 
or moral shipwreck would respond to different modes of the 
practice of friendship. Henry applied each to the boy with 
whom he had grown up in the little town. He bought his 
friend a gold watch, to give him tangible evidence that some 
one cared for him. This gift was made under an irresistible 
impulse, a mystical impression, so characteristic of his prayer 
life and dealings with men. Year after year he tested God’s 
compassion and power to redeem. At last his friend made 
a complete and final break with his habit, and Henry Wright 
felt that his faith had been justified. From this time redemp- 
tion became the ruling passion in all his labors for the little 
hamlet. The kingdom of God was to be wrought out there 
among his fellow townsmen. He threw his whole soul into the 
regeneration of the boys. He never lost faith, even when they 
kept on in their old ways. When one plan failed, with char- 
acteristic determination and hopefulness he would try another, 
always looking forward to the joy of ultimate victory. Thus 
through many years grew and became perfected his belief in 
the efficacy of personal evangelism through friendship. 

For the sake of their influence upon the boys many splendid 
college men were brought to Oakham for stays of different 
lengths. As far as possible he chose men with proved Christian 
characters as well as brilliant athletic reputations. These stu- 
dents gave talks on pertinent subjects and played on the 
different teams with the young men. The first man to come 
up from New Haven to assist in the work with boys was 
Howard Richards of the Class of 1900, Yale Scientific School, 
who spent some days at Oakham in the summer of 1904. The 
following summer Edwin Harvey, ’07, now of Yale in China, 
stayed throughout his vacation in the village, and made a 
month’s visit in 1906. Herbert Malcolm, ’07, later headmaster 
of the Lake Placid School, lived in Oakham and joined en- 
thusiastically in all of Henry’s work for the boys. Some men 
were brought up for shorter periods—a day or two, or perhaps 
a week. Among these was Louis J. Bernhardt, then of the 


102 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Yale Hope Mission, who came to Oakham on two occasions and 
told the remarkable story of his life. 

As manager of the Oakham baseball nine, Professor Wright 
not only tried to instil into his team high ideals of clean sports- 
manship, but when the Oakham boys were playing with boys 
from other towns he assumed full responsibility for all acts of 
the team. Although most of the boys who came to the ball 
field were honest, straightforward country boys, now and then 
there would be one who had not such a keen sense of mewm et 
tuwm as could be desired. A lad on the Rutland ball team lost 
a glove while playing on the Oakham field. Henry immedi- 
ately sent him a fine one to replace it. The astonished recipient 
wrote in reply: 


Rutland, October 16, 1900. 
My dear friend: 

I received your letter and the glove this morning. I hardly 
know whether to accept it or not, as it is a better one than mine, 
although mine cost $3. I asked some of the boys about it, and 
they told me to accept it. You really weren’t under any obliga- 
tion to replace it, but we all know up here that you have a 
better principle and a finer sense of honor than most young men. 
This is not flattery, but is the sentiment of myself and the rest 
of the boys here. I most sincerely thank you for what you have 
done, and hope you may succeed in your ambition, whatever it 
may be. 

With kind remembrances from all the boys, I remain, 

Sincerely your friend, 
A. G. Down 


Ernest Hayward, hearing of Henry’s desire for some 
athletic equipment, in 1902 sent him two fine gloves and some 
balls, to which the recipient replied in great glee: “I shall try 
to preach some lay sermons this summer with both gloves and 
the balls, and it will be a joy and inspiration to me to think 
that you chose the texts.” 

On July 22 Hayward received another note from Oakham 
about the ball team and other matters: 


The Oakham Story 103 


Yesterday we laid out the prettiest baseball diamond Oakham 
has ever had. We have found a piece of ground immeasurably 
better than Mullett’s down at Alfred Morse’s. It is only half as 
far from town. We had to pay for it, but it is worth it. We 
were hoping to practice this afternoon, but the shower has 
broken us up. Addison Angus pronounces my catcher’s glove 
better than any other he has ever had on. My infielder’s mit 
is getting a fine pocket and can’t be beaten for quick work. 

I am beginning this Thursday a series of ten studies in I 
Corinthians 13 with the Oakham people. I forget whether I sent 
you a copy of the outline I got out or not; at any rate I enclose 
another. 

I had a fine time during my four days at Whitinsville, 
although we had quite as much rain as theology and we had no 
small amount of both. 

My trip to Brown you were asking me about has been post- 
poned till November 8, and I am going to Harvard September 
16 to 18. I may go to Virginia for September 21 to speak on 
Bible study at the University of Virginia. 

Read a book of the Iliad yesterday and 350 lines today. 


Not everyone on vacation, even Greek students, reads a book 
of the Iliad one day and three hundred and fifty lines on the 
following! He made a point of studying some particularly 
difficult subject at odd times when he could master small de- 
tails. “I have enjoyed my German adverbs today,” he wrote 
to a friend, “allerdings, freilich, gegenwdrtig, etc.” The 
Whitinsville meeting was a group of young Yale graduates 
who drew apart for a few days for fellowship and to discuss 
religious matters. 

Even during the winter he planned constantly for his 
friends in the Massachusetts hills. Just before Christmas, in 
1902, he wrote to Ernest Hayward: 


I have just sent the Oakham baseball team the caps I ordered. 
They are of Yale blue and look very professional. Bert Malcolm 
goes up to spend his vacation in Oakham with Van; he is to act 
as my agent. 


104 Life of Henry B. Wright 


It was in the summer of 1903 that Henry settled on the 
piece of land which he bought for a ball field. Finding that 
many of the Oakham boys were too shy of the church to come 
to meetings that he had held there, he determined to go out to 
them and work side by side with them, that he and they might 
have a better mutual understanding. ‘The prospective ball 
field furnished the opportunity. It was full of rocks; to pre- 
pare it for a ball field meant hard manual labor, but the boys 
volunteered their services and Henry shared their work, dig- 
ging, blasting, hammering shingles on the clubhouse roof, 
going for dynamite himself for fear of accident, while by 
comradeship and private conversation he sought to lift up 
Christ and draw the boys to Him. 

On August 1, 1904, occurred a great event—the dedication 
to the glory of God and clean sportsmanship of the ball field 
which he had purchased with his savings. The Worcester 
Telegram ran an account of the celebration, of which the fol- 
lowing is a partial copy: 


The athletic field was dedicated to the use of the athletes of 
Oakham for all time at three o’clock this afternoon by Professor 
Henry B. Wright of Yale College, assisted by an assembly of 
five hundred people. 

At no time had it been announced that the most public- 
spirited man should win a prize, but on the quiet some philan- 
thropist had given Professor Wright a $5 gold piece to be given 
to the person who did the most to make the field. So Bert Reed 
was called forward and given the coin amid great applause. 

The field was then turned over by Professor Wright to the 
athletes of Oakham so long as it should be used for fair sport. 

Professor Wright then had the record stone, which is a shaft 
of field granite that stands six feet tall, unveiled. On this stone 
will be engraved a suitable title to show to posterity to whom the 
field belongs and how it came about. On the other three sides of 
the stone will from time to time be recorded victories won. 

Mr. Wright, in closing, called upon one of the old sportsmen 
of the town to tell of the games played when he was a boy. This 
was George W. Stone, who used to be a crack player of round 


The Oakham Story 105 


ball. Mr. Stone described a game that Oakham won from West 
Brookfield thirty-nine years ago on West Brookfield Common for 
a purse of $500. It took three days to play the game, and when 
it was over Oakham had won, 28-27. Nine of the team are still 
living and seven are members of the Grand Army. 

Professor Wright urged the town’s teams at baseball to play 
with town men, not to hire outside talent, for then the merits of 
town athletes were not brought out. Professor Wright urged fair 
play and fair umpiring. 


His ideals for the team are expressed in his brochure 
Soldiers of Oakham in the Great War: 


We had observed from the start two invariable rules: (1) that 
no one should receive pay for playing on the team; and (2) that 
no non-resident players should be brought in from other towns, 
even if adherence to the rule meant temporary defeat. We had 
faith in the efficacy of unselfish service and town spirit ultimately 
to develop—even out of much new and crude material each year— 
a victorious nine. The season was short, rarely over six weeks, 
and there was a constant shifting of population, which made sad 
havoc in our ranks from year to year. But the team we built up 
anew each year was the town team. The boys were proud of it, 
and Oakham families preferred to have their own sons play regu- 
larly week after week and put over a victory now and then, 
rather than hire outsiders, win some single victory, and then 


disband. 


The Oakham Young Men’s Clubhouse was not complete 
when the field was dedicated and its dedication was put off 
until January 13 of the following year. An impressive 
program was prepared for the Town Hall. Henry made some 
remarks on “What Started the Idea.” There was a reading 
of the constitution and by-laws, followed by a talk by Herbert 
L. Malcolm, Yale 07, on “What the Club Can Do for Oak- 
ham.” He was followed by Edwin D. Harvey, ’07, on 
“Qualities of a Good Citizen,” and the formal program con- 
cluded with an address by Morgan H. Bowman, 705, Captain 
of the Yale Baseball Team, on “The Part Athletics Can Play 


106 Life of Henry B. Wright 


in the Development of a Good Citizen.” A group of the young 
men then gathered in the clubhouse for an informal discussion 
of athletics with Captain Bowman. Enthusiasm ran so high 
over baseball in the following summer that two teams had to 
be organized. 


In a letter to Ernest Hayward, from Oakham, on August 
28, 1905, is revealed the devotion with which Henry Wright 
consecrated himself to the task of winning the boys of Oak- 
ham to Christ: 


We have been working for nearly a year with the deliberate 
aim of presenting the claims of Christ to every young man in 
town this summer. I have never been able to get the responsi- 
bility off my mind and so we set about it in dead earnest. Early 
last fall I asked Ned Harvey, a Sophomore at Yale, who was 
converted in a New York Mission and is one of the strongest men 
physically and spiritually in the class, to spend the summer here. 
Bert Malcolm, Ned and I met every day at noon in my recitation 
room in prayer for the town and the boys. We were all brought 
together here in July—Ned, Bert, Ad, and myself. 

We started right in with the worst fellows, the heavy drinkers, 
and have spoken definitely with over half of all the boys. Two 
have declared definitely, and all are responsive. Nearly every 
one comes out to evening meeting and all seem eager to learn, 
but are terribly weak of will. The stories we have heard this 
summer, of sin and despair, are terrible; but we have faith to 
believe that they will find peace in Christ. Isn’t it strange what 
a false front of pretended happiness the world works under for 
the most part? I never knew what real life was till this summer. 

We have just about three weeks more and then we must drop 
the tasks here for others. But it does work, Ernest, and this 
is the happy issue of our experiment. 


The field and the clubhouse came to make a very good 
appearance. The diamond was well laid out and flanked by 
two covered players’ benches, a sporting touch which was added 
in the summer of 1906 at considerable expense. In this sum- 
mer the widow of Dana Eddy presented the team with a flag 


The Oakham Story 107 


in memory of her husband, a brother of Brewer and Sherwood 
Eddy, who had been a classmate of Henry and cognizant of 
his dreams for the Oakham boys. The summer closed with 
a banquet to the Hubbardston team in the Town Hall. Henry 
was chosen to act as toastmaster, and Addison Angus, Charles 
Smith of Hubbardston, Herbert Malcolm, and Philip Baldwin 
responded. Henry read a poem which he had written on 
“Geof at the Bat,” a jest on one of the players. At this time 
a vote of thanks was given for the covered benches at the field 
and one to Mrs. Eddy for the flag. Hubbardston recipro- 
cated the following August by entertaining the Oakham nine. 
These amenities did much to strengthen the bonds of good 
feeling among the adjacent towns. 

The “Geof” mentioned in the poem was a roving ex-pro- 
fessional ball player, a Catholic, who worked for some months 
in the little town, finally dying of tuberculosis. Henry gave 
this boy perhaps the first real friendship he had ever known. 
When Professor Wright was in Rome, in 1908, he secured the 
Pope’s blessing on a small cross which he had bought for Geof, 
knowing how highly the boy would prize it, and wishing to win 
his loyalty to Christ through the mode of religion to which he 
was accustomed. Henry Wright never believed in proselyting. 

“Do you remember Geof?” Henry wrote to Ernest Sheldon 
in 1913. ‘He died last week. He wrote me a beautiful letter 
just before he died. I am so happy that his path crossed 
mine.” 

A young lad of the town was suffering from a severe acci- 
dent in the summer of 1909. Henry visited him regularly when 
in Oakham. He wrote to his wife about the case on July 27: 


Bert Reed came and got me last night with his new horse and 
took me down the Brookfield Road to see Henry Cummings, who 
got crushed at Dean’s Mill last winter and will probably never 
get well. He is one of Bert’s friends and I was just delighted to 
see the devotion and true Christ-like spirit which Bert showed 
toward him. 


108 Life of Henry B. Wright 


The accident brought on tuberculosis and gangrene set in. 
The affliction was so noisome that almost no one could endure 
to be in the same room with him, but Henry’s heart went out 
to the unfortunate boy and he spent a great deal of time with 
him trying to bring him courage and comfort, and a knowledge 
of Christ’s love. 

Esprit de corps was a most important element in a team 
like Oakham’s and Henry had many clever ways of develop- 
ing it, some very humorous. No one was to shave on the day 
of a game, a superstition he had got from old Yale football 
teams. On one occasion a silver loving cup was presented to a 
member of the ball team who had played successfully for 
twenty-five years. Constantly through the year he was alert 
for opportunities to reveal his affection for the boys on the 
teams. Anniversaries were remembered; often during the long 
winter months a book suited to meet a certain need was posted 
to some man in a snow-bound farm house on a lonely road. 

One of the most extraordinary things about the whole of 
his baseball experience was that he never cared much for the 
game in and of itself. He learned to field well, and every day 
one winter he practised swinging two heavy bats in order to 
get his muscles trained to it. This he did in the cellar, guiding 
his swing on the mortar rows between the bricks! In the end 
he batted above the average. He played the game because of 
the friendship it afforded with men whom he loved and wanted 
to reach. Plays and rule-books were mastered, and he often 
went to college and league games that he might be as familiar 
as his friends with the development of the sport. 

By the summer of 1915 the ball team was well organized, 
the field in splendid condition, and the small clubhouse suitably 
equipped for its purpose. This summer Professor Wright em- 
ployed me to coach the team. I came to Oakham after the 
Northfield Conference and was later joined by Raymond B. 
Culver, Yale ’16, who added greatly to the enjoyment of the 
Club meetings by his splendid singing. We both worked on 
the town history which Henry was preparing, in the mornings, 


The Oakham Story 109 


and coached the team after supper. We had many games with 
towns in the vicinity—South Barre, Paxton, North Brook- 
field, Hubbardston, Rutland, Wheelwright, and others. An 
Old Home Day was celebrated with appropriate speeches and 
exercises, together with a big ball game in the afternoon. To 
close the ball season that year we had a double-header ball 
game, four teams participating, followed in the evening by a 
dinner in the basement of the church. As the carriages full of 
boys drove away, each was handed a parcel neatly done up 
and tied with a ribbon, containing Dr. Exner’s The Rational 
Sea Life for Men, Henry Ford’s pamphlet against cigarettes 
entitled The Case Against the Little White Slaver, and two 
publications by Professor Irving Fisher of Yale on liquor. 
The day was a gala finish to a most profitable baseball season. 

It should be noted that while Professor Wright was work- 
ing during his summer vacations with the boys of Oakham, he 
was also busily engaged on other large tasks—planning courses 
for his work in the college or in his numerous Bible classes, 
writing articles for magazines, or compiling historical material. 
From 1912 on he did an amazing amount of work each year 
on a history of the town of Oakham, hoping to complete the 
task which his father had begun some years before. The his- 
tory gave him contacts and it was congenial labor for him 
intellectually, for he was a born ferreter-out of lost historical 
evidence. It also furnished an opportunity to train many of 
his helpers in historical method and habits of scholarship. ‘The 
genealogy of every family which had ever lived in the town 
was carefully worked out. At the price of prodigious labor, 
maps of the town were constructed, picturing it at intervals of 
ten years from the beginning, each with all farmhouses and 
other buildings standing at that date located on it. He would 
search for days until he discovered a cellar hole which would 
give the key to a situation, or would burrow with the patience of 
Job. in the archives at the Worcester Courthouse to locate a 
name on a tax list or the registry of a deed. In the summer of 


110 Life of Henry B. Wright 


1915 he and three others searched for hours to locate an Indian 
corn mill, without success. He persisted in his endeavors and 
on November 7, 1921, in a letter to Leonard Wood he ex- 
claimed in triumph: “We found the Indian grist mill after 
seven years’ search!” Often he would exclaim, as he dis- 
covered the last link in a chain of evidence: “There is nothing 
hid which shall not be revealed!” 

Professor Wright wrote to John R. Mott on August 24, 
1915: 


We have had a wonderful summer here at Oakham. I have 
had two Yale men with me and we have been wonderfully led by 
God to round up the men and boys for Christ. All this in addi- 
tion to the book I was writing, the first rough draft of which 
is finished. I sometimes feel that I was meant for the rural work 
rather than the college community. I could write a novel on 
the soul experiences of this summer. And let me give my testi- 
mony, too, Mott, to the fact that there is nothing in the work 
for men and boys without evangelism tied up to it and decision 
for Christ as its objective. We are tired, but supremely happy. 


At the beginning of August, 1915, Professor Wright had 
sent out the following notice to the young men of the town: 


Every Tuesday and Friday evening during the month of 
August, the young men of Oakham are invited to meet at the 
Clubhouse immediately after the baseball practice for a social 
hour. Raymond B. Culver will sing some of the old favorites. 
Short, snappy, fifteen-minute talks will be given on body building, 
training, track athletics, tennis, etc. 

Among the speakers will be George Stewart, Raymond Culver, 
Henry Hobson, manager of the victorious Yale Crew of 1914, and 
others. 

Plans will be set on foot for an entertainment later in August 


for the benefit of the Young Men’s Club. 


At the close of the summer he wrote to Frank Buchman, 
who was at that time in Calcutta, India: 


The Oakham Story 111 


Do not think that because I have not answered your good 
letter of many weeks past I have forgotten you entirely. I think 
of you and your work each day in my morning watch. I was in 
complete isolation from the rounds of regular interests from June 
to October. Five of us—my wife, her brother, two Yale under- 
graduates, and I—gave ourselves entirely to the spiritual regen- 
eration of Oakham, and we had the greatest summer of our lives. 
The work came to a head in the middle of August and spread to 
the surrounding towns. About ten of the people have already 
come across, and we are so well started that we are to go back 
once a month right through the winter. We are planning special 
evangelistic services for the first week in January. 


The event in the middle of August which caused such a 
profound impression upon the town, and which he mentioned 
in this letter, was the death by drowning of the infant 
daughter of a young couple who were very dear to him. 
The husband had played on the ball team many seasons. In 
Soldiers of Oakham in the Great War Professor Wright 
mentions the spiritual experiences following the tragedy: 


The summer of 1915 was one never to be forgotten in the 
history of Oakham. . . . And when on a memorable day in 
August the little daughter of the captain of our ball team slipped 
away to be with God, one after another of those who had hastily 
gathered by the water’s side to seek for her found Him instead. 
In a very remarkable way, somewhat as the boys in the trenches 
experienced it when face to face with the great adventure, God 
became very normal and real in Oakham town. 


Through sorrow their friend hoped that the young parents 
might find the resources in the spiritual life which were his. 
In the midst of a heavy schedule he prepared for them a 
weekly Bible study covering each day, a work which he con- 
tinued for one year. The entire series is a memorial of a 
friend who poured himself out through hours of patient toil 
to share with a bereaved mother and father the riches which 
life had brought to him. Only a few will be given, although 
the whole set is worthy of publication. They illustrate a 


112 Life of Henry B. Wright 


singular ability to adapt Biblical material to the daily needs 
of hard-pressed men and women. 


Sunday, October 3, 1915. The story of Christ walking 
on the sea. (Matthew 14:25-32). 


Today is our prayer day and I have given you the shortest 
prayer in the Bible (‘‘Lord, save me’). Peter was a man just 
like He had been pretty tough and swore a great 
deal, but he became the leader of Jesus’ disciples. You will 
probably be afraid of your own voices when you first begin to 
pray together—Josephine and I were—you may not be able to 
say more than Peter did, three words. Just talk naturally to 
God and say “us” instead of “me.” But it is wonderful what a 
lot of good comes from doing it together. It won’t seem queer 
after the second day. You would be surprised to know how 
many non-Christians in Oakham do it. 








Tuesday, November 9, 1915. 


The Way to God 
“Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have 
boldness toward God; and whatsoever we ask we re- 
ceive of him, because we keep his commandments 
and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.” 
(I John 3:21, 22.) 


I had a great day at Hotchkiss on Sunday. There were two 
hundred and fifty boys out at both the services. I didn’t intend 
to ask for decisions because many of the boys were under sixteen 
and they would have all come across in a bunch simply because I 
asked them to—not because they had fought the thing out and 
decided it was the right thing to do. But at the close of the 
second service, wholly unexpectedly, one of the boys came up 
to me and said he wanted to see me. We went into one of the 
classrooms alone and he told me that he had been dishonest in 
his school work and that was what held him back from Christ. 
I talked with him about an hour and he was as happy as could 
be. His mother will be a happy woman today when he writes her. 


The Oakham Story 113 


I believe that the prayers of my fellow workers in Oakham 
and New Haven made that heart ready for me. 


Wednesday, November 10, 1915. 


“Charge them that are rich in this present world, 
that they be not highminded, nor have their hope 
set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who 
giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do 
good, that they be rich in good works, that they be 
ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying 
up in store for themselves a good foundation 
against the time to come, that they may lay hold on 
the life which is life indeed” (I Timothy 6:17-19). 


But what I told you yesterday about the Hotchkiss visit 
wasn’t the whole story. I believe that we converted a home too—a 
rich society home. It happened that in my audience was the wife 
of one of the richest manufacturers in a great city. After the 
service I went over to the Headmaster’s to take dinner and found 
that she and her husband were the guests. She took me aside and 
I saw that there were tears in her eyes. She told me that she had 
not been going to church for a long, long time, but that the talk 
had made her decide to go in the future. She felt she had been 
missing something. I know she was genuine. There wasn’t any 
fake about her. 


Wednesday, November 24, 1915. 
The Way to God 


The story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). 


First get straight with the world—then invite God in—that 
is the way to God. Zacchaeus began where all of us have to 
begin. He looked over his life to see if there was anything he 
knew was wrong in it. He made that right. Just as soon as 
he did that, Jesus said: “Today is salvation come to this house.” 
The whole subject of religion cleared up. 

That is where we all begin. This Zacchaeus story is straight. 
I know it works. 


114 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Tuesday, December 12, 1915. 


“Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it 
after many days” (Ecclesiastes 11 :1). 


You will remember that I spent a week at the University of 
Pennsylvania just a year ago. At that time we got hold of 
Neilson Matthews, the captain of the Pennsylvania eleven. He 
joined the church in April and this fall he led his team to victory. 
I wrote to him two days before the final game with Cornell and 
this is his reply: 


Dear Dr. Wright: 

Your beautiful letter to me is locked up with my most 
prized treasures. My appreciation of such wonderful in- 
terest is inexpressible. . 

Our season was a success not only from the standpoint 
of games won and lost, but from the deeper point of high 
morals and clean play. Never have I been so honored as 
to have been called captain by such a fine body of men. 

Again I express my appreciation of your interest and 
wish you success in your work up there at New Haven. 

Sincerely, 
Nem MatrrHews 


Friday, January 28, 1916. 


“Ts anything too hard for God?” (Genesis 18:14). 
“Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven 
and the earth by thy great power and by thy 
stretched out arm; there is nothing too hard for 
thee” (Jeremiah 32:17). 


There is one boy I have been trying to help for a long time. 
I am sure he has tuberculosis and is going down fast through 
drink. I walked over to his little shanty last summer but he 
wasn’t there. I tried it again in December. I’ve prayed for him 
every day. Just as we reached the Ware River Station after 
leaving you, he and another man came along staggering drunk. 


The Oakham Story 115 


I had about five minutes to see him. His head was bleeding: from 
a cut, and at first he didn’t know anything. But I got two ideas 
into his head before the train left which sobered him and made 
him cry: (1) that I wanted to be his friend, and (2) that I 
prayed for him every day. I want your help for him in prayer. 
I shall write him, and when I come up in February I shall stay 
down in White Valley and see him. His condition almost broke 
my heart, but God threw him right across my path. 


Tuesday, February 1, 1916. 


“Go ye, and stand and speak in the temple to the 
people all the words of this life.” 


For the next four weeks thousands of people in New Haven 
will read the same Bible references each day in preparation for 
neighborhood prayer meetings to be held in dozens of homes on 
each Friday night. Ray, Earle, Dick, Annabel, Jo, and I read 
them together each day at noon. I am going to give you the 
same reading that we have each day. 

It is our business to testify for Jesus—why? 
Well, we owe it to others to let them know. I spoke in Chapel at 
Yale two weeks ago and I’ve already had two men come out to 
the house and give their hearts to Christ. If they had not heard, 
they never would have come. They wouldn’t have known about it. 


Thursday, February 3, 1916. 


“Our business—to be salt and light” (Matthew 
5 :18-16). 

(The passage beginning, “Ye are the salt of the 
‘earth”) 

We are to be light and salt. What do these mean?—cheer- 
fulness and agreeableness. Christians are not a bunch of glooms. 
They are electric lights (just as good as the new system Mrs. 
Fobes is going to put into the library )—wherever real Christians 
go, people are brightened up. 

Christians are agreeable, too. What makes food taste good? 
Salt! 


116 Life of Henry B. Wright 
February 15, 1916. 


“And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I 
should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring 
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 
(Exodus 3:11). 


You and I are not the only people who think we are not good 
enough when we face the question of religion. Moses felt just 
the same way. He said, “Who am I, that I should go?” But 
the wonderful thing about it all is that God never asks us to do 
anything that He won’t help us to get fit to do. We may not be 
fit now, but He will give us the ability when the need comes. 
Don’t ever be afraid to do anything God asks, no matter how 
big it seems. 


February 17, 1916. 


“Be not afraid because of them: for I am with thee 
to deliver thee, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 1:8). 


When we first think of starting in on the Christian life, the 
thing that keeps us back is the fear of men—of what other people 
will say. Now the real fact of the matter is that this is almost 
always just a fear. If we go ahead quietly and do what we know 
is right, people rarely say anything at all. 


Thursday, April 6, 1916. 


“The younger men likewise exhort to be sober- 
minded; in all things shewing thyself an example 
of good works; in thy doctrine showing incorrupt- 
ness, gravity, sound speech, that cannot be con- 
demned; that he that is of the contrary part may 
be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us” 
(Titus 1:6-8). 


Today I shall go within eight miles of you on the Boston and 
Albany Railroad to Worcester. I shall think of you as I pass by 
Spencer about 1 p.m. and an hour later through Oakdale on my 


The Oakham Story 117 


way to Groton, where the boys’ school is. I shall be coming back 
about midnight on the sleeper. If Buster wakes up in the middle 
of the night, it will probably be the whistle of my train that is to 
blame. Remember me in prayer that I may touch the lives of 
these boys. Some of them will be millionaires when they get out 
of college. 


April 14, 1916. 


Here is a dear little sonnet from Lowell. James Russell 
Lowell and his wife lost their little girl and then Mr. Lowell dis- 
covered that the going of the little one made him love his wife 
just twice as much. He thought he loved his wife as much as he 
could before, but when the life departed from the little one he 
felt a new bond spring up for his wife. 


To My Wife. 


I thought our love at full, but I did err; 

Joy’s wreath drooped o’er mine eyes; I could not see 
That sorrow in our happy world must be 

Love’s deepest spokesman and interpreter; 

But as a mother feels her first child stir 

Under her heart, so felt I instantly 

Deep in my soul another bond to thee 

Thrill with that life we saw depart from her; 

O mother of our angel child! twice dear! 

Death knits as well as parts, and still, I wis, 
Her tender radiance shall infold us here 

Even as the light, borne up by inward bliss 
Threads the void glooms of space without a fear, 
To print on farthest stars her pitying kiss. 


In these letters and Bible studies he constantly asked to 
be remembered in prayer as he went on different missions. 
“Remember me in prayer as I speak to the students at 
Wesleyan University tonight,” he requested on October 23, 
1917. Again, in January, he wrote: “‘Remember me again 
today in prayer as I speak twice—once at Simsbury, Conn., 
to a famous preparatory school, and then at Yale to the 
students in the evening. I count much on the prayers of my 


118 Life of Henry B. Wright 


good friends.” Again he wrote: “Remember me today at 
Choate School, where Bert Malcolm used to teach. These are 
little fellows, many of them, and have not come to the age of 
decision for or against, so I shall not ask them. But I shall 
try to speak to them so that when it does come time for them 
to come across, they will have been led right.” At another 
time he asked to be remembered “as I speak to about a hundred 
students who are planning to go out as missionaries.” 

Some busy men will post a letter to a friend in need, others 
will send a book; few will write one, as did this busy teacher 
for a lonely father and mother in their time of sorrow. 

Plans were laid for one Saturday evening entertainment of 
the Young Men’s Club each month during the winter of . 
1915-1916. On October 30, a mock trial was held in which 
the usual quips and nonsense made for much hilarity. 

In November the following notice was mailed: 


SECOND WINTER SOCIAL OF THE YOUNG MEN’S CLUB 
OF OAKHAM 


Saturday evening, November 27, at 7:30 p.m., 
in the old Town Hall 

Captain Murray Chism of the Yale Gymnastic Team, who 
won the gold medal at the Intercollegiate Meet in New York last 
spring, will surely be present this time and do tumbling stunts. 
Arrangements have been made with the Barre High School to 
secure the gymnasium mats. Raymond B. Culver will sing as 
usual. There will be a discussion of the eligibility question, in 
which all are invited to take part: 

“Should men be prohibited from playing on college 

ball teams because they have received money for playing 

on teams in the summer time?” 
Be sure to be on hand at 7.30 sharp. Extend this invitation to 
any men or boys of the town who may not have received it. 


On Christmas Day, 1915, all men in the town received the 
following announcement, with pictures of each of those partici- 
pating on the opposite page: 


The Oakham Story 119 


To our Oakham Friends: 

We cordially invite you, and any whom you may wish to 
bring with you, to a Christmas and New Year Mission, to be 
held in the Old Town Hall at Oakham, under the leadership 
of Rev. Albert H. Plumb, on five successive evenings, at 7:30 
p-m., from Wednesday, December 29, to Sunday, January 2, 
inclusive. There will be five speakers in all, each one of whom 
will tell the story of his life on a different night. Three of us, 
whose names are signed to this letter, you already know. The 
two other members of the party are Louis J. Bernhardt, one 
of the most famous bank robbers in the United States, who was 
finally caught by Detective William J. Burns, served twenty-two 
years in prison, was converted, and has recently been restored to 
citizenship by President Wilson; and William F. Ellis, a saloon- 
keeper in New Haven, who was himself sunk to the lowest depths 
through drink, but since his conversion has been one of New 
Haven’s most useful citizens. There will be special music. Ladies 
as well as gentlemen are invited to all the sessions. 

Yours faithfully, 
Henry B. Wricut 
Raymonp B. CuLver 
GEORGE STEWART, Ur. 
New Haven, Conn. 
December 25, 1915. 


Professor Wright reported to his friends on January 6 
concerning these meetings: 


We had such a happy time at Oakham. The results of the 
meetings were beyond all our expectations. These were the 
figures for attendance: 


Veal: Ole OR Se ee ee a 
AMG TORN ae” Vy UIs NG nal ree 8 
BVA Venema On SE ett Aton). iseeP LOD 
SALUT Vie eM Meiet sf ea LOE 
UNOS Varn eames etnias) es) ls!) ERO 


In all of these meetings except Thursday there were more men 
than women. Not once during any meeting was there the slight- 


120 Life of Henry B. Wright 


est bit of disturbance or attempt to make fun. It was the 
easiest, most sympathetic crowd to speak to I ever faced. Sun- 
day night thirty young men and women came down from Barre. 
The entire vestry was packed. My heart is freer tonight than 
it has been in years. They have had the question put to them 
at least. The blood of these people is no longer on my head. 
It lies with them to accept or reject. 


For the fourth meeting of the Young Men’s Club on 
February 26, 1916, he made use of the “Masked Marvel” idea 
which had become popular in professional wrestling, boxing 
and other sports. Mysterious men had been appearing in 
bouts with their faces masked, while press agents circulated 
rumors that they were titled foreigners or persons in high 
social position in reduced circumstances. This was printed in 
the letter announcing the meeting: 


The “Masked Marvel” will positively be present and will be 
ready to meet all comers in his chosen field. This mysterious 
person, famous throughout the country, will be masked when he 
arrives in Oakham, and his identity will not be revealed until 
the close of the meeting. Any who wish to close with him in 
wrestling or feats of strength are invited to do so. Music as 
usual, 


That night Professor Wright and I occupied the same room 
at the Dean homestead and talked and laughed until nearly 
daybreak over the astonishment of the small boys during the 
evening. 

The ‘Masked Marvel” episode was followed by a meeting 
on March 25, 1916, for which a notice was posted to all the 
men and boys of the town: 


STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! MARK! AND INWARDLY 
DIGEST !! 


Without any exaggeration, this will be the greatest feature 
ever pulled off in the town. Two Teutonic Masked Marvels, 
Battling Baldridge the Bulgarian Brute and von Behemoth the 


The Oakham Story 121 


German Oak, challenge any man in Oakham to wrestle, any style. 
These gentlemen speak German exclusively while engaged in 
their gentle art. Able-bodied Oakham citizens like Sylvester 
Dean, Fayette Russell, Bert Reed, Ed Bullard and Edgar Swin- 
dell are hereby advised to take out accident insurance by March 
22. Dave La Bonte, hitherto acknowledged champion of Oak- 
ham, is warned to take both accident and life insurance. 
Henry B. Wricutr 
Raymonp B. Cutver 
GEORGE STEWART, Jr. 
N.B.—All small boys under twelve who can tell who Behemoth 
was will be given candy prizes. (P.S.—Ask Mr. Plumb or 
Deacon Allen, or consult Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.) 


The two Yale men mentioned were H. Malcolm Baldridge, 
718, and William S. von Bernuth, 717, both members of the 
Yale wrestling and football teams. Before the staation was 
entered both men were masked, to the consternation of a young 
trainman who came in after the proceeding. He looked as if 
Jesse James himself had boarded the train. At the station the 
group was met by a curious throng. The Hon. H. Malcolm 
Baldridge of Omaha, Nebraska, when he had become a mem- 
ber of the State Legislature, remarked of this lark: 


There were three sleighs to meet us. One would have been 
plenty for our party, but it seemed as though the towns-people 
all wanted to be the lucky one to carry Professor Wright over 
the five-mile trip. 

When we arrived at the village we were met by an informal 
delegation who wanted to pay their respects to the man who had 
done so much for their community. The Professor was very 
tactful in distributing the members of the party among different 
houses as guests and also in handling the delicate situation of 
where he was going to stop. 

The wrestling and the challenge to all comers naturally inter- 
ested a different class of people than usually came to the church 
and I was impressed by the fact that these people who were drawn 
there merely by the wrestling showed the same affection and love 


122 Life of Henry B. Wright 


for the Professor as did the best church-going members of the 
small congregation. We were royally received because we were 
friends of his. I have never seen another man who had captured 
the hearts and admiration of a community the way that Profes- 
sor Wright had done in this little town. 

Our wrestling contest was a success. As you remember, we 
met the village blacksmith, the constable, and several other hus- 
kies. Next morning Bill and myself both gave talks at the 
church. After a fine Sunday dinner we went back to New Haven. 

Bill never forgot that trip and the inspiration of being with 
Henry Wright for those two days has made a lasting impression 
on him and on me. Let me say that one of the chief arguments 
that I have used out here with boys in the West for going to Yale 
for their education was the fact that they would come in con- 
tact with Henry Wright and men of his type. 


Two black wooden affairs made to represent large iron 
weights and marked “500 lbs.” and ‘1,000 Ibs.” had been 
rented from a New Haven costume dealer. Men in the crowd 
audibly drew in their breaths, when they beheld William von 
Bernuth, often admiring his biceps, raise these weights suc- 
cessively over his head by herculean efforts! 

The April meeting was devoted to the interests of the Boy 
Scout movement. Mr. Jerome, Scout Executive of New 
Haven, who later gave his life in the United States Air Force 
in France, was present in uniform and gave the company an 
excellent evening, performing many feats of woodcraft and 
scouting. ‘This evening’s work later bore fruit, when in 1923, 
the Boy Scout troop was organized. Professor Wright never 
rushed plans; he would suggest the idea and let it take root. 

The winter of 1915-1916 was full of uproarious fun and 
hand-to-hand grips with deep problems in the souls of men. 
Not a single visit passed without personal interviews of the 
most vital character. In all, over twenty-five different men 
were taken up from the University on these deputations. The 
Yale students were always amazed at the elaborate provision 
which Professor Wright made for their comfort in traveling. 


The Oakham Story 123 


The history occupied a large part of his time throughout 
the summer of 1916. Together with Raymond B. Culver, 
Alvin B. Gurley, Yale ’16, and myself, he had been at 
the Northfield Conference and had returned to Oakham. 
There we were joined by Mrs. Wright, Ernest Hayward, 
Annabel Wood, and Margaret Anne Stewart. Alvin Gurley 
was a great favorite among the boys because of his excellent 
swimming and diving. Culver and myself were for part of the 
summer at the school of fire with the Yale Batteries at Toby- 
hanna, Pennsylvania, this being the summer when General 
Pershing was sent on a punitive expedition into Mexico. 
During July and August a young fellow, who had been a 
long way into the far country of wretchedness and shame, 
claimed Professor Wright’s friendship and help. Drink was 
his weakness. Professor Wright and Raymond Culver both 
gave him of their best. Finally the youth seemed to have 
rid his system of alcohol and to be entering into a new way 
of life. On an evening in the autumn, as the family were 
gathered about the fireplace for a word of Scripture and 
prayer before retiring, news came that the unfortunate boy was 
again in the clutches of drink. A few minutes of silence, and 
then Professor Wright buried his face in his hands and sobbed. 
The others retired softly, understanding a little better how 
Christ felt when he wept over Jerusalem that would not. 

The World War changed all plans. In the summer of 
1917 Professor Wright was in Plattsburg and later went to 
Camp Devens, where he labored in the Army Y.M.C.A. until 
May of 1919. After the close of the war many matters which 
necessarily had been laid aside during hostilities demanded at- 
tention, chief of which was the Oakham history. 

In 1920 the family group included Raymond B. Culver 
and his wife and their infant daughter Josephine, named for 
Mrs. Wright, Leonard Wood, Ernest Hayward, Monta C. 
Smithson, and Emma Larsen. Professor Wright was de- 
termined to finish the major part of the history that year if 
possible, and all hands set to work at their appointed tasks. 


124 Life of Henry B. Wright 


“In our work on the town history,” said Smithson, “Henry 
insisted upon absolute accuracy in every detail. This gave me 
an appreciation and love for historical research. For anything 
discovered, no matter how small, he always gave credit and 
appreciation.” Herbert Malcolm also assisted in the work 
this summer. The history had proved a larger task than had 
been contemplated when, in 1912, the work was begun. By 
concentrating the efforts of several helpers Professor Wright 
hoped to finish it by 1922, working in vacations and in odd 
periods. In June of 1920 he wrote to me in Cairo: 


I am working hard to get the Oakham history finished—and 
then I can give all the rest of my life to whole-time work for 
Christ. God has opened the way for the completion of the 
work this summer. We have Ralph’s auto—my documents and 
filing case are all safely here—the girls are in fine health. Yes- 
terday Ray and I spent half a day in Worcester and got a lot 
done. We go down again tomorrow. Mrs. Lincoln has my 
family histories all finished—1,200 typewritten pages. 


Another letter awaited me in Paris, on my way north from 
Palestine. About their labors of the summer he remarked: 


We have worked very hard on the town history. Ray, 
Leonard, Monta, and I have averaged five full days a week at 
Worcester, and within two weeks we shall have every house, 
standing or cellar hole, traced from 1749 to the present day. 
With these sources complete, we shall tackle the tax lists and 
then the job will be all over except the writing. ‘The people 
at the Courthouse are much interested in our work and give us 
every facility. Ray has become a most expert title hunter, and 
Monta and Leonard are fast becoming so. I am arranging to 
have Albert Briggs go to Mount Hermon this fall. He has laid 
up about $100 and should be able to work his way with a little 
help. He is developing splendidly. Our ball team hasn’t won 
many games, but we have had lots of profit and fun. George 
Grimes is developing into considerable of a pitcher. We pray 
for you and Yale and the city each day. Remember us that 


The Oakham Story 125 


Oakham may be visited with God’s spirit. Ray preaches next 
Sunday. 


The Eighteenth School Day and Reunion was held on 
August 20, 1920. A memorial tablet to those who served dur- 
ing the World War was dedicated in the evening with fitting 
ceremonies. It was placed in the same hall where are the six 
tablets with the names of 143 soldiers from Oakham during the 
Civil War. Professor Wright gave the dedicatory address, 
consisting largely of a tribute to the men who were called to 
the colors and to Lawrence Earle Lawless, who was killed in 
action. 

The outstanding event in the summer of 1921 was the 
military funeral of Lawrence Earle Lawless, an Oakham boy 
whom Professor and Mrs. Wright had taken into their hearts 
and home. He had been connected with the medical detach- 
ment of the Three Hundred and Twenty-fifth Infantry. In an 
exposed position in front of the supposedly impregnable 
Kriemhilde Stellung, before St. Juvin, Lawless was mortally 
wounded in the early morning of October 13, 1918, in the 
midst of a terrific artillery barrage. He was buried in the 
American Battle Area Cemetery, Commune of Les Islettes, 
Meuse, France. His body was sent back to America in Sep- 
tember, 1921. The funeral, which took place on September 11, 
in the Coldbrook Church, was very impressive. Addresses were 
given by Dr. George Lovell, headmaster of the Hopkins 
Grammar School of New Haven, where Lawless had won 
prizes during his preparation for Yale, the Rev. Mr. Smith of 
the Barre Congregational Church, and Arthur Rudin, one of 
the soldiers in Lawless’ Company. All the World War veterans 
of the town were present and full military ceremonies were 
observed. In honor of Lawless and other Oakham boys who 
were called to the colors, Professor Wright published an ex- 
cellently written quarto volume of thirty-one pages entitled 
Soldiers of Oakham, Massachusetts, in the Great War of 
1914-1918. The commanding general of the Eighty-second 


126 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Division characterized this as the most accurate and readable 
account of the activities of that organization which had ap- 
peared in print. 

The summer of 1922 brought special labors to fill vacation 
time. ‘The Centennial of the Yale Divinity School was to be 
celebrated in the fall, and Professor Wright had been given 
the difficult task of preparing a catalogue of all who had ever 
attended the institution during the hundred years of its exist- 
ence. He retreated to Oakham, where he could work in quiet, 
and gave himself wholly to the task. Willard E. Uphaus 
assisted him in the month of June, Forest Knapp, Munsey 
Gleaton, and Joseph Taggart coming later and remaining 
throughout the summer. A questionnaire was sent to every 
living graduate and to relatives of those not living, as far as 
these could be ascertained. Hundreds of short biographies 
had to be written and indices made. The amount of minutize 
connected with this work was enormous. The college men who 
were assisting in these labors took part in the practice on the 
athletic field in the evenings. On Saturday nearly every week 
baseball games were held with the surrounding towns. 
Through the last of this summer and early fall Professor 
Wright worked at his important task under most distressing © 
circumstances. He was afflicted with a malady of boils and 
carbuncles. But in spite of his suffering the work was brought 
to a successful completion. 

After careful study of the situation in the town in the 
summer of 1923, Professor Wright was convinced that a new 
effort should be made to develop the social possibilities, 
not only for the young men but for the entire community. 
The great cities had made a drain upon the small towns, 
robbing them of their young men and women. Life in the 
town must be made ample and attractive to preserve the rural 
community from decadence and ruin. A Boy Scout troop was 
formed this year, under the leadership of Leonard Wood. On 
November 24, 1923, the Worcester T'elegram bore the fol- 
lowing dispatch concerning a move for a community park: 


The Oakham Story 127 


. . . [Professor Wright ]explained that twenty years ago a base- 
ball field was established, but the trouble was that it was too small 
and served only one group—the young men—and it was too far 
from the school to benefit the school children. With these facts 
in mind, Dr. Wright said he began to look around for a field to 
meet the following requirements: large enough so that a ball 
could not be knocked out of it from the diamond; one that 
could be used for running races; could be flooded for skating; 
could have a toboggan slide; near enough to the schools to be 
used for a playground; far enough from the village to be safe 
for a Fourth of July bonfire; big enough to allow for Grange 
gatherings from neighborhood towns; roomy for a big field day; 
with parking space for between 300 and 400 automobiles; and 
spacious enough to allow for an open air pageant of the his- 
tory of the town. 

There was just one piece of ground here, the speaker pointed 
out, which measured up to all these requirements and that was the 
Tomlinson pasture. The services of Leroy Huer, who had leveled 
hundreds of acres in California, were obtained and with a sur- 
veying outfit the land was gone over and it was pronounced 
ideal for a park. 

Dr. Wright said the cost of putting the pasture in condi- 
tion for use as a park would be about $4,000. He said the 
money would be raised by four groups. Dr. Wright will be cap- 
tain of one group, assisted by Arthur Webb, Milford. The 
second group will be composed of members of social associations, 
of which there are about fifteen here; the third group, of towns- 
people led by the town officials; and the fourth, of former resi- 
dents and visitors to the town. It was voted to have children 
of the various schools compile lists of the former residents and 
visitors, a prize of $5 being offered by Dr. Wright for the pupil 
of each of the three sections of the town handing in the most 
complete list made up from his section. 


This new plan was entered upon with great enthusiasm. 
He wrote me from Yale just two weeks before his death: 


I think we have the key to the situation in this new approach. 
I have prayed and thought and read long on the subject and our 


128 Life of Henry B. Wright 


present plan is a combination of Gillette’s “Rural Sociology,” 
“The Declining Villages of America,” and Lindeman’s “The 
Community,” of course spiritualized and revamped by God’s 
counsel, | 


The Kingdom of God was to be realized in at least one village 
in America. 

It had been one of Professor Wright’s desires to spend a 
Christmas in Oakham. The winter of 1923 brought the ful- 
fillment of this wish. Vacation days were as perfect as heaven 
on earth could make them. His heart was overflowing with 
love for those about him, his bright spirit gladdened every one 
who came in contact with him, and his mind was continually 
planning for the park and the future of Oakham. He played 
Santa Claus for two families of children, and on Christmas 
Day walked over the hills through deep snow to carry gifts to 
a tiny girl who had been disappointed at the town Christmas 
party. The evening after Christmas found at his home an 
enthusiastic group of Oakham friends, inspired by his vision 
for the town, planning with him how to raise money for the 
park. 

As part of the Christmas proceedings he had planned to 
have Dean Charles R. Brown of the Yale Divinity School come 
up on December 28, 1923, to give his lecture on Abraham 
Lincoln for the benefit of the new venture. The letter which 
he sent to the Dean is typical of his extreme thoughtfulness 
in providing for the comfort and convenience of others: 


Everything is all right here for the Abraham Lincoln Lecture 
and the people are very enthusiastic over it. We are very 
anxious to have you bring Mrs. Brown with you. We have long 
wanted to have you both see our little town in action and we 
have a nice furnace-warmed house in which to entertain you. 
The enclosed circulars will show you the plan on which we are 
embarked for the social salvation of this community. I am 
working out a plan here for a future course in Social Evangelism 
at the School and it is going far beyond my expectations. 


The Oakham Story 129 


The date is next Friday, December 28. You leave New Haven 
on the 1.50 p.m. Boston Express via Springfield and go without 
change to Palmer. There you change to the Ware River Rail- 
road, to the train which goes out at once after the arrival of the 
New Haven train. Our station is Coldbrook. 

You can buy the ticket direct from New Haven to Coldbrook 
at window 8 at the New Haven station. Ask for Coldbrook, 
Massachusetts, via Palmer. The cost is $3.76 and the ticket 
form is on the top row of letter S in the rack of green long- 
distance tickets opposite window 8. 

We are extremely anxious to have Mrs. Brown come with 
you and hope nothing will prevent. You can go down to New 
Haven either at 8.16 a.m. or 2.09 p.m. on Saturday. We shall 
be going down at 2.09 p.m. ourselves. 

If you will kindly drop me a line confirming the date, I shall 
know this letter has reached you. 


Professor Wright died on the day before the lecture was 
to be given, but loyal friends carried on his plans during 
the following year. Two circulars that he had prepared were 
sent out and brought their response in subscriptions. Dean 
Brown gave his lecture in Oakham in May, the various social 
agencies in the town fulfilled their pledges, and the town itself 
paid an extra tax to give toward the park, which they desired 
to finish as a memorial to the faithful friend who had poured 
out his life without stint for them. The young men from 
Yale with whom he had planned the work of the summer in 
park construction fulfilled their tasks with the utmost faith- 
fulness, with the aid of the loyal townsmen. 

Thus closed the Oakham story for Henry Wright. 


CHAPTER VIII 
HOME 


Let me live in a house by the side of the road 
And be a friend to man. 
—Sam Wa tter Foss. 


“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). 


HE truest test of a man’s character is his home life. 

Here is revealed his best, and here whatever weakness 

he may have will betray itself. When Henry Wright, 
in young manhood, dedicated his life to God, he also dedicated 
the home that he dreamed he might one day found. He 
believed that God has a plan for every family just as truly as 
for the individual life, a plan that will make the home su- 
premely beautiful, provided the family will let His will have 
its way. When, therefore, he asked Miss Josephine Lemira 
Hayward to become his wife and found with him the home of 
his dreams, it was with the understanding that the Master 
should be supreme in their affections—“Christ Jesus himself 
being the chief corner stone.” 

The comforts of the fireside must never lure the heroic 
from life. Home was not the end of life. It was not to be 
a place of seclusion and indifference to the world’s needs; 
rather it should be a refuge where rest gave new strength, a 
haven from which to go forth again into the world. When 
duty called, Henry Wright reversed the well-worn excuse long 
ago offered to the master of the feast and often said, “I have 
married a wife, and therefore I can come—and come better.” 
In the front hall of the house, where they would be easily seen 
by all who came into the home, Professor and Mrs. Wright 
hung two pictures, symbols of the quality of character they 


themselves wished to embody, the one was Sir E. J. Poynter’s 
130 


Home 131 


“Faithful Unto Death,” a picture of a Roman soldier standing 
at his post in the streets of Pompeii, at the time of its destruc- 
tion by the eruption of Vesuvius, viewing with fearless eye the 
oncoming disaster. The other picture was of a young girl 
with her face turned upward as if toward some vision—a repre- 
sentation of faith and purity, the complements of courage. 

In the hearts of Henry Wright and his wife there was a 
place and a desire for children. Eight years of their married 
life had passed and no children had come to make their home 
complete, when in the summer of 1915 several young people 
came to them, under God’s providential guiding as Henry 
Wright firmly believed, and were soon regarded by them almost 
as sons and daughters. 

Toward the close of the college year I had consulted Pro- 
fessor Wright about possible summer work. It occurred to 
the latter that he could employ me to help him on the Oakham 
history, so he engaged me to work for him till college opened. 
I was to live in the Wright home, and assist him in his plans 
for the Oakham Young Men’s Club. Later in the summer 
Raymond B. Culver joined the family. Thus was laid the 
foundation for that happy relationship with the group of 
young people which Professor and Mrs. Wright ever after 
called their “family.” Three more members were added to 
this group before the close of the summer: Bernice Angier 
of Oakham, who later decided upon a course of training at 
Grace Hospital, New Haven; Annabel Wood of McMinnville, 
Oregon, to whom Culver had become engaged, and whom the 
Wrights had invited to live in their home while preparing for 
a course in Mt. Holyoke College; and Lawrence Earle Law- 
less, an Oakham boy. The following year two more young 
people joined the group: Margaret Anne Stewart, my sister, 
who spent the summer with the family in Oakham before 
entering Mt. Holyoke; and Alvin B. Gurley, Yale 1916. 

Lawrence Earle Lawless was an orphan boy who lived with 
his aunt and uncle in Coldbrook, a small village in the town of 
Oakham. ‘The thought had suddenly come to Professor 


132 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Wright one day, towards the end of a ball game, to go home 
with Earle and speak to him about the claims of Christ upon 
his life. The clear-eyed country boy then and there gave his 
allegiance to Christ. Later he was approached about going to 
school and college and making the most of his life. The idea 
was eagerly embraced by Earle and he immediately set about 
preparation. September found him at New Haven in the 
Wright home, attending the Hopkins Grammar School. 

At the close of the War, in a memorial address in honor of 
Earle who had given his life in France, Henry Wright gave an 
account of his experience with Earle, and expressed his con- 
viction that it was God’s leadership that brought about that 
experience and made Earle a member of the family: 


Four baseball teams were to compete on the athletic field in 
the afternoon, representing the towns of South Barre, Hub- 
bardston, North Brookfield and Oakham. The field was packed 
with spectators. It fell to me to umpire the two matches. The 
first game had just ended in which Oakham, with Earle playing 
at second, had been victorious. He had gathered up his base- 
ball goods and had started up the road toward Coldbrook. I 
was standing behind the pitcher’s box about to announce the 
batteries and start the second game, when as clearly and un- 
mistakably as if it had been an audible command, the Spirit 
spoke to my will. It told me to leave the game and join Earle 
and talk to him about his relations to God, on his way home 
that afternoon. ‘There was a sweet insistence and an immediacy 
about the inward urge which in spite of its seeming unreasonable- 
ness was irresistible. I felt instinctively that I was standing 
before the door leading into another of the chapters of that 
wonderful, unfolding spiritual romance which life has ever been 
tome. Hastily calling to one of the spectators to take my place 
as umpire, I commandeered a horse and buggy and soon overtook 
Earle. On the road to Coldbrook that afternoon he gave his 
heart to Christ with an eagerness and joy which I shall never 
forget. He confided to me that he had wanted to do it for some 
time but had not known exactly how to go about it. A few 
weeks later I drove with him to Barre where he united with the 


Home 133 


Congregational Church whose pastor, Rev. Charles H. Smith, 
had exerted a marked influence on the boy’s life in occasional 
missionary preaching visits on Sunday afternoons to the Bap- 
tist Church in the town. 

Into our home, which for the eight years of our married life 
had been childless, four foster children, two sons and two 
daughters, had come that summer, unheralded and unsought. 
They seemed to have been sent to assure us of the abiding truth 
of the great and precious promise of the Psalmist that it is God 
who setteth the solitary in families—provided families as well as 
the solitary will let Him have His way. And now as we looked 
on Earle a second conviction in the form of a question pressed 
itself home to our wills with quiet insistence—“If four, why not 
fiver”? The little house in the college town still had a gable room 
unoccupied and the table was capable of further extension. Why 
could not Earle earn his way at our home while completing his 
preparation and later in the University? I put the question to 
him and again his face lit up. It had been his secret ambition 
to go somewhere to college but he had not believed it would ever 
be possible. 

He came to New Haven in September 1915, and for two years 
was a member of our little family. The home was an industrious 
beehive and provided exactly the intellectual stimulus which Earle 
craved. George was entering on his first year’s studies in the 
Yale Law School; Ray was finishing the B.A. course in the 
college; Annabel was preparing for Mt. Holyoke and Bernice 
was completing the nurses’ course at Grace Hospital. Later 
Anne Stewart was to join us on her way to Mt. Holyoke. What 
Earle meant to every one of the group it would be hard to 
express. He was loyal, sunny and absolutely dependable. He 
gave himself with persistence and grit to regular study, night 
and day, with the single object of entering Yale. 


Professor Wright’s description of the home as ‘‘an indus- 
trious beehive” was a happy one. But all who lived in his 
home that year, or in succeeding years, found their chief source 
of “intellectual stimulus” in his own keen mind, his habits of 
accurate scholarship, and his deep interest in the development 


134 Life of Henry B. Wright 


of each student. His own standards of work were high, and 
he held himself to a rigid self-discipline that developed in him 
a degree of efficiency and a capacity for creative work that 
were at once the inspiration and the despair of the young 
people with whom he shared his experiences. But he also found 
an abiding joy in the most difficult tasks, loving them for their 
intrinsic value, and he entered into the achievements of the 
students in his family with a humor that was sometimes irre- 
pressible. On one occasion one of the men had won a high 
mark in a particularly difficult course. News of the triumph 
had been brought home by another member of the family, and 
when the victor returned he was greeted at the door by the 
entire family hastily recruited and organized into an orchestra 
which blared forth its pean of triumph from “instruments” 
ranging from the fire-place tongs to the frying pan, under the 
leadership of the merry professor disguised as a drum major, 
a black fur muff on his head and a pointer in his hand for a 
baton. 

The confidence that with the coming of the circle of young 
people into the childless home God’s wonderful plan was 
actually being worked out was expressed in two letters written 
in 1917, a few months before the declaration of war that was 
to scatter the family far and wide. On Professor Wright’s 
birthday several members of the family had sent letters of 
greeting to him at Lakeville, whither he had gone to speak to 
the boys of Hotchkiss School. The two letters which follow 
were written from the Hotchkiss School. In the first letter he 
says: 


I am so proud of all my family that I can never thank God 
enough for sending you all to us. It was He that did it. And 
I know that your hfe and ’s are going to open up as 
Josephine’s and mine have done—one wonderful romance with 
a new and more absorbing chapter coming after each preceding 
one. 





Home 135 


In the second he wrote: 


I surely was overwhelmed with your loving message. All I 
could do was to thank God on the spot, when I had finished 
reading the five letters, for such dear friends. 

You have brought me more than I can ever give to you. Life 
is a song all the day long while you are with us and my greatest 
joy is in thinking of the years to come as you rise into the 
noonday of your powers on the high-level. 

What a wonderful thing it was—that day we began the 
founding of the family. And how wonderfully He has provided 
for each step in expansion. ‘That was the verse that came to 
me with compelling sweetness and power as I lay in bed last 
week, “His favor is for a lifetime.”” Why do so many people try 
to get along without it? or only make a single experiment in 
divine favor and then shut up shop? 

I love to stop now and then and wonder what the next chap- 
ter in the romance will be—next summer, or even before. We 
don’t know what it will be but it will be something wonderful. 

We are God’s remembrancers: we will take no rest and we 
will give Him no rest till He establish and make Yale a praise 
in the earth. 


The most important social event of the day in the Wright 
household was the evening meal. With classes and lectures 
over for the day, the family gathered about the table for an 
hour of fellowship. Here were discussed topics of all sorts. 
The day’s news, affairs of state, athletics, a knotty problem in 
philosophy or theology, the latest book on psychology—to 
these and a hundred other subjects Henry Wright brought his 
own best thought, the wealth of his wide experience, his con- 
tagious good humor, and the charm of his personality. 

Supper over, evening prayers were offered before the 
family left the table. If God has a plan for every family, why 
should not the family find His will by turning to Him daily in 
united prayer? Henry usually led the simple service, reading 
a short passage from the Bible and offering a brief prayer. 
At times he would read from such a book as Harry Emerson 


136 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Fosdick’s Meaning of Prayer, or John Douglas Adam’s Paul 
in Everyday Life. Much thought and preparation were given 
to these services that they might not become a mere formality. 
All who have gone out from that family circle, some of them 
to found families of their own, remember with tender gratitude 
the blessing of evening prayers. 

Another picture in this home which those who knew it like 
to recall had its setting about the fireside on Sunday evenings. 
Not only the members of the ‘‘family” but other students as 
well found here a cordial welcome. Professor and Mrs. Wright 
were not only deeply religious, they loved the arts and the 
humanities. They had a fine appreciation of music, and found 
keen pleasure in studying together an opera such as Wagner’s 
“Parsifal” before going to New York to hear it. No Sunday 
evening in the home was complete without music. Sometimes 
Mrs. Wright would sing in sweet soprano some of the Volk- 
lieder which she and her husband had learned to love during 
their stay in Germany; again, the whole group would gather 
around the piano and sing college songs. ‘Always the singing 
ended with some of the fine old hymns of the Church. In all 
of this Henry Wright took great delight. Although he was 
able to sing very little, he loved music none the less, and 
often said, half humorously and half in earnest, that he ex- 
pected to learn to sing when he got to Heaven. 

Those Sunday nights are memorable also because of the 
man who shared his best with the young people in that circle. 
Sitting in the firelight, with all ights turned off, he would talk 
of things nearest to his heart. At times the conversation 
turned to travel and the beauties of the old world, and the 
professor and his wife would describe the great works of man’s 
imagination and skill. Carcasonne, Rothenburg, Rome, and 
Athens were just around the corner. The life and times of 
great masters came to earth again. There was high apprecia- 
tion of dreams which men had wrapped up in creations of their 
hearts and hands. 

Pictures and books and memorabilia of travel were very 


Home 137 


precious to them; but once in the quiet of the fireside, Mrs. 
Wright had said: “All these dear things are externals; these 
are not the real home or the real family.” The deepest in- 
terests of the home were spiritual, and Henry Wright joyfully 
shared with that fireside group the best thoughts in which his 
own mind was so rich, or new plans for his beloved Oakham, or 
some new challenging thought for deepening the spiritual life 
at Yale. Often as the evening hour drew to a close, a student 
would slip the Bible into his hands. Those who listened as 
he read a few verses from the Book he loved, and then knelt 
with him in the firelight while he offered a simple prayer of 
gratitude and joy and trust, went out from that room with the 
consciousness that they had been on holy ground in the 
presence of one who knew his Heavenly Father face to face. 

To this home, as to millions of others the world around, the 
war brought its challenge and its sorrow. Deeply disappointed 
in the Germany he and his wife had known and loved, con- 
vinced of the righteousness of America’s entrance into the war, 
Henry Wright gave himself to his country’s cause with that 
complete abandonment that was characteristic of the man in 
everything he did. The story of his service with the Army 
Y.M.C.A. at Plattsburg and Camp Devens is told elsewhere in 
this book. It should be noted here that he applied for enlist- 
ment in the Army but was rejected because of the weakened 
condition of his lung. 

Within a few weeks after America’s declaration of war the 
family at 20 Livingston Street was widely scattered. Pro- 
fessor Wright and I went to Plattsburg in the service of the 
Y.M.C.A. with the First Officers’ Training Camp. A few 
months later I enlisted in the Army, Earle Lawless entered 
the Army in October, Ray Culver spent the summer and fall 
in New York with the National War Work Council of the 
Y.M.C.A. and later enlisted in the Navy. Alvin Gurley, after 
trying repeatedly to enter the Army, entered the U. S. diplo- 
matic service and was attached to the legation to Serbia. 
Anne Stewart, who had just finished her Sophomore year at 


138 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Mt. Holyoke, and Annabel Wood, went with Mrs. Wright to 
spend the summer in Oakham. In July, Annabel took a po- 
sition in war-work service in New York. Anne Stewart spent 
the following year at the University of Kansas, breaking off 
her course to serve with the Y.M.C.A. in France. To one of 
the boys who had enlisted in the Infantry, Mrs. Wright 
wrote: 


The flag is out for our boy. I am afraid I had a weak and 
wicked, lingering hope that they would not let you in just now, 
but I don’t know of a home that can be more proud of its offering 
and it certainly would not have been right to hold you back from 
that which you felt in your heart it was right to do. God bless 
you every step of the way. 


An event which brought great happiness and enrichment of 
life to the whole family was the marriage of Raymond Culver 
and Annabel Wood on September 25, 1917. The simple and 
beautiful service was performed at the New Haven home in 
the presence of a few close friends. Henry Wright made the 
trip down from Camp Devens to assist in the service and give 
away the bride. 

During the second year of the war the family of the 
Reverend William D. Barnes, Yale ’07, lived with Mrs. Wright 
while Mr. Barnes was associated with Professor Wright in 
the religious work of the Y.M.C.A. at Camp Devens. In all 
these associations deep and sincere affection sprang up. 

With the signing of the Armistice and the return of peace 
the hearts of the widely separated family joyfully turned back 
to the New Haven home. It seemed that all might return from 
the hazard of war, an unbroken circle, when suddenly word was 
received of the death of Earle Lawless. His number had been 
the first one called for the Oakham district under the selective 
draft law for the National Army in 1917. He reported at 
Camp Devens in October and after a period of training in the 
Depot Brigade of the Seventy-sixth Division he was transferred 
to the Eighty-second Division at Camp Gordon. Here he was 


Home 139 


made a corporal but later willingly relinquished this position to 
become a private in the Medical Corps. This Division did dis- 
tinguished service on the Western Front in the great battle of 
the Argonne Forest. Earle’s aid station was in an exposed 
position in front of the line. On the morning of October 13, 
1918, he was mortally wounded by shell fire, and died on the 
following day. 

In his tribute to Earle in the Memorial Day address at 
Oakham in 1919, to which reference has been made, Professor 
Wright told of the farewell at Camp Devens: 


On Sunday, November 11, I received word that he was among 
the 8,000 men who had been ordered to Camp Gordon at Atlanta, 
Georgia, for enrollment in the Eighty-second Division. I has- 
tened to his barracks, only to find that they had been already 
vacated. By quick work I overtook him at the railroad siding 
nearly a mile away just before the troops entrained. It was 
the last time that I was to see him in this world. There we made 
the same pledge to each other which so many friends have made in 
the hour of separation, that we would remember each other be- 
fore God as often as we glanced up at those mutual third parties 
in friendship—the silent stars—which would be looking down 
upon us both each fair night even though an ocean might sepa- 
rate us. And many an evening during the long months that were 
to follow I used to fancy that I could read Earle’s message 
reflected up onto the stars from down below far to the East, 
even as now I fancy still I read it shining through those same 
stars to me from out of eternity. 


The address included an excellent description of the en- 
gagement in which Earle lost his life and closed with these 
words: 


But I think the word which Earle was gladdest of all to have 
us hear was a simple sentence from one who was wounded almost 
by his side in the same great battle and from whom, a perfect 
stranger to us, the first word about him came out of the silence 
that followed that last letter of October 3. It was this: “He was 
a very dear friend and buddy of mine and a very good boy.” 


140 Life of Henry B. Wright 


He had fought the good fight and kept the faith, which had 
been the one consuming ambition of his life when he left the little 
house on Livingston Street on that September day in 1917. 


Shortly after receiving word of Earle’s death the following 
letter was written to Kenneth Latourette: 


The war has brought us some great and sacred experiences. 
One has been the loss of Earle. He was killed in the battle of 
the Argonne Forest. He had no father and mother and had 
lived with us two years. He passed the examinations into Yale 
just before he was drafted. Josephine and I loved him as a 
son. He had written us each week and had kept the same 
sunny Christian faith until the end came. His last letter was 
October 3. The great joy of it was that God had used me to 
lead him to Christ. I had many plans for him at Yale. 


In May, 1919, Henry went to New York to meet Earle’s regi- 
ment when it disembarked at Hoboken. A few days later he 
wrote to me: 


I had a fine day yesterday with Arthur Rudin, of Dalton, 
Mass., who was Earle’s buddy. Arthur was with him when he 
was killed. He is a fine, clean boy of twenty-five, manly and 
direct. It is good to see men come out of a frightful experience 
like the Argonne so gentle and restrained and truly Christian. 
Earle surely did keep the faith. He made that impression on 
all his chums. 


Professor and Mrs. Wright had opened the gates of their 
hearts and let him go, joyous for his opportunity in the great 
struggle and thankful for the chance they had had to direct 
his energies and enrich his life, but his death was a heavy loss. 
In the midst of his grief the thought came to Henry that, 
though his own plans for Earle were shattered, God had some 
better plan, and could do far more for the lad than his earthly 
friend could ever have done, and so he gave him into the 
Father’s keeping. 


Home 141 


Just above Poynter’s “Faithful Unto Death,” the picture 
that Earle had learned to love in the 20 Livingston Street 
home, Henry Wright hung Earle’s photograph, above which 
he placed the same service flag which hung in the window dur- 
ing the war. In place of the blue star he put a gold one and 
in the center of the gold star he placed a little radium button 
which sheds its soft radiance through the night, an everburning 
fire in memory of a soldier lad who gave his life in service for 
that home. 

In the days that followed the war yet another chapter was 
opened in the home life of the devoted man and woman. 
Several of the foster sons and daughters returned to New 
Haven and new members were added to the family group. 

After Ray Culver’s discharge from the Navy in 1919 he 
returned to New Haven, bringing his wife and infant daughter 
Josephine and they lived in the Wright home until Culver had 
received his degree. 

In 1919, when Anne Stewart returned from France, the 
Wright home was again her headquarters. After a period 
with the Army in France and then in the great Army Nurses’ 
Training School, as Y.W.C.A. Secretary, she went to Con- 
stantinople to serve in the same organization. She was badly 
injured in an automobile collision after eighteen months 
service in the Near East. Thirty painful days on board a ship 
crowded with emigrés from the wreck of the White Armies of 
Generals Korniloff, Denikine, and Wrangel, were followed by 
a blessed period of recuperation of over two months in the com- 
panionship of Mrs. Wright. She found there rest and peace 
of mind, where the door was open wide to every human need. 
Miss Stewart had become betrothed to Captain David Higham 
of the Queen’s Royal Regiment, who was on detached service 
in Constantinople on the staff of General Sir Charles H. Har- 
rington. They were married in June of 1923, in London. 

Two new members were added to the family circle in the 
fall of 1919 when Monta C. Smithson, Yale ’20, a Nevada boy 
who had served two years with the A.E.F., came to take up 


142 Life of Henry B. Wright 


study in New Haven. He made his home at 20 Livingston 
Street until college opened. His fiancée, Emma Larsen, came 
on in December. She taught in the New Haven High School 
for the remainder of the year, making her home with the 
Wrights. They were married the following July in the little 
white church in Oakham, and for a second time, Henry Wright 
gave a foster daughter in marriage. ‘There was a special place 
in the hearts of Professor and Mrs. Wright for each one of 
their children. 

The fireside circle embraced several other young people 
during the years 1921 to 1923. Benjamin F. Culver and his 
wife, Linna Vaile Culver, spent several months in this home in 
the winter of 1920-1921. Howard A.Wood,brother of Annabel 
Wood Culver, entered Yale College in 1920, and later the Yale 
Medical School in the Class of 1925. On August 23, 1922, 
he was married to Jessie M. Jeffery in McMinnville, Oregon, 
and brought his bride to New Haven. 'T'wo younger brothers, 
Leonard and Walter Wood, came on from Oregon after the 
war and were treated as sons by the Wrights. Both studied 
in the Lake Placid School, where they prepared for Yale. 
Another couple who meant much to the Wright home were 
Leroy Huer and Enna Rich, who were married June 25, 1923, 
in Chicago. For the next two summers Huer directed the 
work on the new community park in Oakham which Henry 
Wright had planned. 

Professor Wright had an eager interest in the plans of all 
these young people and often gave counsel out of the wis- 
dom of his own experience. His advice regarding courses and 
methods of study was of great value. When one of the young 
men planned to spend the summer at Columbia University 
doing extra work toward his doctorate, he wrote: 


It is right for you to go to summer school this summer. 
Don’t tie up with summer conferences. “Give thyself wholly 
to it.” As soon as summer school is over, come to Oakham and 


Home 143 


we will work over some scientific books together, or perhaps 
German or French. 


To another who found himself seriously handicapped in 
preparing for his preliminary examinations for the doctorate 
on account of illness in his family, his wise counsellor wrote 
urging him to present himself for the examinations “‘if it is 
humanly possible” in spite of the many weeks of absence from 


Yale: 


One never gets anywhere in graduate work unless he sets an 
impossible task and forces himself to meet it. The great tempta- 
tion, as in the case of writing a book, is to keep putting it off till 
you are a little more perfect. 


He was most resourceful in assisting those who entered his 
home to find positions which would make it possible for them 
to finance their way through college, and he counselled them in 
their choice of permanent posts after graduation. His appre- 
hension of what was spiritually dangerous kept them from 
blind-alley positions or places where the subtle influences of 
wealth or prestige would soften moral fiber. Prepare for 
leadership at thirty and forty and forty-five, he would say to 
them ; beware too early prominence. He warned them to avoid 
executive work where names appeared on letterheads, giving 
the appearance of intellectual or spiritual qualities which 
were not possessed. He cautioned them against predatory 
committeemen who went about devouring ambitious young 
men and women with the beauty and enthusiasm of youth upon 
them, divorcing them from consecutive study and from first- 
hand contact with life. Life work was presented in terms of 
the highest and hardest, never in terms of compromise and the 
low road. No matter how great a moral disaster a man was 
in, or how old he was, when he came to Henry Wright for 
guidance in life work he was directed head-on toward the 
highest, regardless of cost in social reproach or humiliation 
or time or treasure. 


144 Life of Henry B. Wright 


In money matters he was as scrupulous as a bank cashier. 
In this he felt an obligation to convey his ideas to those who 
worked and lived with him. At one time he was helping a 
student who had lived in his home for several months, to unmesh 
himself from a tangle of debts. After a long struggle the man 
was apparently weakening, whereupon Henry penned him the 
following note: 


Your note has perplexed me. I cannot think that you are 
going back on our whole year’s agreement. Our understanding 
was that your salary was to go to pay off your debts and nothing 
else. Don’t tell me, old man, that you planned to spend the 
money which I was planning to send you on June 1 for anything 
else than D. R. and H. J. My boy, that money was sacred. It 
was not yours. It belongs to those other men. . . . If one cent 
of this goes to anything else but the debts, dear old fellow, you 
are lost. All the year’s struggle is of no avail. . . . Unless you 
are the absolute victor in this, the game is lost. 

Don’t think I love you any less because I have so written, but 
I was thunderstruck and dazed at your statement that you needed 
this sacred money, God’s money, certainly not yours. I was 
trustee for that money to save a soul and I must not prove false 
to my trust. Dear old friend, when you preach to others do not 
yourself become a castaway. 

I may have misunderstood your request. If I have, forgive 
me. If I have not, “Be vigilant.” 

My love to you. We have had the most wonderful happen- 
ings here. No day without men for Christ. Wish I could take 
time to write. 

Affectionately, 
Henry 


He was generous with all that he had, although his finan- 
cial resources were limited. It was his practice to use honor- 
ariums for special purposes. On one occasion when he had 
received fifty dollars for an address in one of the large pre- 
paratory schools, he gave it for the needs of a poverty-stricken 
student. T’o another student who had been unable to solve 


Home 145 


the financial problem involved in returning to Yale after the 
War, he sent a letter marked ‘‘Not to be opened until Easter.” 
On Easter Sunday morning the student opened the envelope 
and found a letter full of enthusiasm and burning with a great 
faith in the man’s future work. Enclosed with the letter was 
Henry Wright’s check for one hundred dollars! The last letter 
which Professor Kenneth Latourette received from him is an 
example of his generosity: 


Dear Ken: By good fortune I was able to earn $10 last 
week from a lecture. It gives me great joy to send it to you for 
the Student Volunteer Convention Fund. 


He coveted for the young people whom he took into his 
heart that exalted Christian life and that soundness of 
morality which he insisted could be the heritage of every one 
who was willing to pay the price. Out of the stores of his own 
rich experience he brought priceless treasures to share with 
them in times of crisis. His life was a living witness to the 
truth which so many people miss, that there are no short cuts 
to happiness, but that there is a joy in sacrificial, redemptive 
love, beyond mere laughter. In 1922, one of the men had been 
suddenly called away from Yale to the bedside of his father 
and wrote from the sick room where he had watched his father’s 
terrible suffering, ‘The problem of evil looms.” In the midst 
of a heavy schedule of speaking on a tour of colleges in the 
South, Professor Wright wrote to him the following remark- 
able letter : 


After chasing me around from place to place, your letter 
finally reached me at Tuskegee. I know only too well what you 
are passing through. Neither Father nor Mother could stand 
it to watch with Alfred as his life ebbed away from tuberculosis 
in 1901, and just about this time twenty years ago I was with 
him. It was in those very hours that I solved my attitude toward 
the problem of evil—not that I solved the problem—I did not, 
and never expect to. But the practical thing for us is our 
attitude toward it. At first I was rebellious; and then one night 


146 Life of Henry B. Wright 


about midnight I went out upon the Yale Campus and walked 
alone under the stars. I just gave Alfred over 100 per cent to 
God and received the sure conviction that he was not going to 
get well, but with it came an assurance of the short-sightedness 
of most people’s attitude toward life and suffering on this earth 
anyway which has never left. I have an idea that evil and illness 
are due to other people’s sins up the line or in the creation of 
environment, and that when they come to realize it in the next 
world our vicarious sacrifice in some way secures for them a 
release from remorse and a chance to progress which somehow 
they could never obtain if we did not suffer undeservedly. 

But I have the other conviction that this suffering of ours is 
not efficacious unless our attitude toward it is right—unless we 
give it fully and freely. So the only comfort to me in my own 
experience with suffering in 1912-1913, was the feeling that some- 
how the battered soul of my drunkard great-grandfather was 
somehow profiting by it and that I was helping him in the next 
world to get back to the stature of a man when I took on myself 
the hereditary or environmental penalty of his sins. That atti- 
tude does make a difference in the efficacy of vicariousness is of 
course indisputable. And that my attitude in the presence of 
suffering as well as my attitude when experiencing it is related 
to the whole matter is a firm conviction of mine also. I want to 
tell you another secret. When my attitude was settled, life at the 
bedside became calm and peaceful and in the two weeks before 
Alfred’s death, as I sat there, there came to me the theory of the 
“Campaign of Platea.” I have never been able to get away from 
the conviction that my attitude in a crisis helped the other. If 
something of this were not true, the words of Jesus, “Bid the 
dead bury their dead but go thou and preach the Kingdom of 
God,” would be the most brutal of words. If my theory of life 
and death are true, they are certainly logical. 


Henry Wright loved children and the picture of his home 
life would be incomplete if the story of his friendship for two 
little people were omitted. Chester Rood was a little neighbor 
lad whose father had died several years before. It is the cus- 
tom of the Church of the Redeemer to hold annually a Father- 
and-Son banquet. Each year, accordingly, the childless heart 


Home 147 


of the professor adopted the fatherless lad, and foster father 
and foster son went merrily off to the banquet. Chester was a 
real boy, noisy, full of fun, and generally as undemonstrative 
of feeling as real boys of ten usually are. But a few weeks 
after his friend’s body had been laid to rest in the little Oakham 
town, Chester suddenly said to his sister, Margaret, ““Name 
four disciples of Jesus.” She began, “Peter, James, John,—” 
Then, as she paused, the little chap said with deep affection in 
his voice, “Henry Wright.” 

Josephine Culver was just a year old when she came with 
her parents after the War to live with the Wrights. Pro- 
fessor Wright and Josephine, or, as he often called her, “Bud,” 
at once became the best of pals. He was keenly interested 
in watching the development of her mind and occasionally 
would enlist her help to test out some theory in child 
psychology. But he loved to play with her when a hard day’s 
work was done. 

He wrote to her father who had been away for several 
weeks; 


Joie is as sweet as a rose, and has lots of attention to give 
her large family of eight. I bought her a doll house, but Worth- 
ington Hooker Washington Dwight Bill Culver—he of the red 
hair—was too long to sleep in the upstairs bedroom and will have 
to stick his legs out of the chimney! 


Devotional life in this home was simple and based wholly 
upon the Bible. Professor Wright habitually kept a period of 
quiet prayer and Bible study before breakfast. A list was 
always in his Bible or near at hand containing the names 
of some seventy-five people, movements, institutions, or hopes 
concerning which he would pray daily. He kept his mind 
open for what he called “luminous thoughts” at this time, 
God’s answers to his prayers. Sometimes these luminous 
thoughts meant writing a letter, or a trip to some distant 
friend, or sending a book, or seeing a third party. He tried 
to make it an invariable rule to obey these impulses. 


148 Life of Henry B. Wright 


He made a practice of reading the Bible with something 
he felt to be a personal weakness or some particular problem 
in mind, seeking especially to find what Jesus’ teaching might 
be in regard to the matter. He kept a personal note book, of 
the loose-leaf variety, in which he recorded under separate 
headings the verses he had found applicable to his problem. 
In his pocket he kept a smaller note book in which he jotted 
down suggestions that came to him during the day. In at- 
tending lectures, reading novels or poetry, visiting art gal- 
leries, or listening to plays or operas he was always on the 
watch for illustrations of the point he was to teach, or sug- 
gestions for talks. The best of these suggestions were finally 
incorporated in his personal note book. 

This note book was arranged in a very neat and orderly 
manner. Under each heading was first a list of the books or 
articles he had read bearing on the subject. Then followed a 
collection of Bible verses applicable to the topic. On the re- 
verse side of the sheet were the illustrations—poems, slogans, 
short quotations, pertinent remarks of friends, references to 
his own experiences or to the experiences of others, suggestions 
as to what he himself ought to do in the matter, stories germane 
to the subject, telling definitions, striking ways of hitting home 
—all often condensed into such brief form that there would be 
on one page enough suggestions for an hour’s talk. As the 
years went by this grew to be a large portfolio containing a 
wealth of invaluable material. 

He did not regard this book, however, primarily as a source 
of material for talks, but rather as something to be used in 
setting a standard for his own personal development. In 
addition to the topically arranged material already referred 
to, it contained very brief records of what he had accomplished 
along certain lines, suggestions for the performance of his col- 
lege and other duties, and lists of persons, dates, pictures, 
books, etc., that for some reason he wished to keep continually 
in mind. In the beginning of the book he states his intention 
to “set aside at least two hours every communion Sunday to 


Home 149 


look over this book and true myself. Then carry some sugges- 
tion from it for my personal life to the communion table to be 
blessed and worked out.” 

In addition to the young men and women who considered 
20 Livingston Street their home, students from the Univer- 
sity continually visited him with personal perplexities. Al- 
though New Haven’s beautiful suburbs offered many attrac- 
tions, he preferred to live within walking distance of the 
campus in order that he might be readily accessible to stu- 
dents at all times. He made it a rule never to keep waiting 
those who came to his home for personal interviews. Often 
he would leave a meal unfinished in order to go immediately 
to his study with a man who had come for help with some 
spiritual problem. What passed between the two no one ever 
knew unless the man gave Professor Wright permission to 
mention the matter. At the beginning of his married life he 
had made an agreement that neither he nor his wife should 
share any confidences with the other unless with the knowledge 
and consent of the party concerned. 

This was the home which welcomed so many varied people; 
there was freedom, humor, hospitality, love. Not a few sought 
it with sore hearts and uncertain steps, to leave it with assur- 
ance and gratitude, with hearts keyed to great adventure. 


CHAPTER IX 
THE ARMY—AT PLATTSBURG 


God’s Saints are shining lights: who stays 
Here long must passe 

O’er dark hills, swift streames and steep ways 
As smooth as glasse; 

But these all night 

Like Candles shed 

Their beams and light 

Us into Bed. 


They are (indeed,) our Pillar-fires 
Seen as we go. 
They are that Cities shining spires 
We travell too; 
A swordlike gleame 
Kept man for sin 
First Out. This beame 
Will guide him In. 
—Henry Vauauan, “Joy of My Life.” 


HE World War left no sensitive soul untouched. Many 
scholars in the countries of the Allies who had attended 
universities in Germany were deeply grieved that old 

friends were now counted among the enemy. Professor Wright 
and his wife loved Germany and the German people. In the 
days of their honeymoon they had experienced German Gast- 
freundlichkeit. Germany had been kind to them; from the 
Schwarzwald to the North Sea they had wandered and found 
it good. Often in the evenings they delighted to sing German 
Lieder learned on golden days in the land of Goethe and 
Schiller. 
150 


The Army—at Plattsburg 151 


Those who had sojourned in German universities could not 
find it in their hearts to hate men whom once they loved. 
Germans and Austrians who knew the allied countries suffered 
also at the sad havoc made of old ties. The Wrights felt 
especially tender toward Germans who were in this country 
during the conflict. ‘Our house is quite a refuge for unfairly 
treated German-Americans,” Professor Wright remarked in a 
letter of November, 1914. The death of fellow students in 
Germany caused sadness, as one by one they fell in Galicia 
or Champagne or Picardy. 

As time sped by, however, the conviction grew upon Pro- 
fessor Wright that even though Germany were not the sole 
offender in the beginning of the war, she could most easily 
have prevented it, since she had cast the deciding vote. There- 
upon he espoused the Allied cause, continuing to love the Ger- 
mans for what he knew them to be at their best, but hating the 
militarism which finally gave rise to Armageddon. 

Pacifism had made its appeal to him as to many who looked 
upon the human race as essentially one family. As the con- 
flict deepened, however, he was convinced that the ethical life 
of the world would suffer more if the United States remained 
aloof than if she participated. The history of his ideas on 
the half-gospel of war time, the stone of offense for his pacifist 
friends, is an interesting one. During President Wilson’s ex- 
change of notes with Germany after the first of the year 1917, 
when war seemed imminent, Charles S. Campbell, Yale ’09, 
General Secretary of the Yale Y.M.C.A., dispatched a letter 
to many of his friends in business, in the ministry, in college, 
and in seminary, inviting them to enlist in some phase of war 
activity of a distinctly Christian character, such as the 
Association war work. Thomas Evans, Secretary of the 
Y.M.C.A. at Princeton, sent out a similar letter, one of which 
was received by Maxwell Chaplin, who had recently returned 
from the great conflict in Europe, where he had become a 
convinced pacifist. Chaplin replied to Evans in the following 


152 Life of Henry B. Wright 


letter which presents his point of view with lucidity and 
strength: 


Hartford Theological Seminary, 
Hartford, Conn. 
Feb. 10, 1917. 

My dear Tom: 

I saw that letter of Charlie Campbell’s some days ago and 
have given it some thought. I feel that some very vital issues 
are wrapped up in this matter for the Y.M.C.A., the Student 
Movement, and the Church. We are on the verge, if not 
already over it, of taking the same fatal attitude that the 
Y.M.C.A. and churches of England have fallen back into, 
namely, of shifting their basis from a Christian to a purely 
patriotic one. The result of this has been the spiritual bank- 
ruptcy of the Y.M.C.A. In England today the War Work 
of the Y.M.C.A. is a great patriotic movement, supported by 
money raised on the patriotic appeal. It has given itself heart 
and soul to the government and is “out to help beat the Ger- 
mans,” as one of its leaders has said, just as much as the War | 
Office is. I tell this to show to what lengths the Association will 
go once granted the object of its work is that which is laid down 
in Charlie’s letter. He writes: “From recent experience on the 
Mexican Border and in the European war zone, it has been 
learned that a well-organized Association work and more particu- 
larly Association secretaries of the proper calibre are essential 
if the efficiency of any military unit is to be maintained.’ Once 
you grant that the purpose of the Association work is the mili- 
tary efficiency of the army, you have surrendered its Christian 
purpose and you have cut the nerve of spiritual power. God 
can’t answer prayer for such a purpose. Such an attitude re- 
duces Christ to the position of a moral antiseptic in the interests 
of military efficiency. Except for the work of Sherwood Eddy, 
the work of the British Association was on a secular basis. Here 
and there were men who were trying to do real evangelistic work, 
but the organization was not tuned up to that level. 

There are two consequences of a surrender to the above prin- 
ciple: First, it will secularize the work into a big piece of patri- 
otic social service. This is good and necessary, but it should not 


The Army—at Plattsburg 153 


bear the name of Christ. It will hinder the International Com- 
mittee after the war just as the army work and munition fac- 
tory work in England has hindered the prison camp work. Sec- 
ondly, the Army will tend to dump its dirty work and responsibil- 
ity for its moral problem upon the Association. 

After my experience of last summer I dread seeing the Asso- 
ciation in this country plunge into the same course that the 
English Association has taken. It is spiritual suicide. Our prob- 
lem is to find out what is the task and opportunity of the Asso- 
ciation among our troops in its attempt “‘to seek first His King- 
dom and His Righteousness.” The crux is right here: are the 
Association leaders going to surrender their right of moral judg- 
ment? The British Association is out to help beat the Germans 
with a moratorium on Righteousness until after the war. The 
result is moral and spiritual] bankruptcy. Why are they import- 
ing Carter and Eddy to organize their religious work? 

If our leaders see the issue, there is no need of their being 
swept off their feet. If the basis upon which the Association 
leaders are planning to launch this work has the Kingdom of 
God as its goal and not the military efficiency of the U. S. Army, 
which is none of its business, I am for it, and hope that Princeton 
will get into the game hard, It will be a desperately hard thing 
to do, for Christ has no place in the military system. This does 
not become apparent in its stark truth until the fighting begins. 
It is my conviction that a man cannot live the Christian life in 
any full sense in the Army. This is the result of scores of 
conversations with boys and men last summer who were doing 
their best to do it. The Christian men in the ranks very soon 
realize that there is nothing Christian about the Army or war, 
and the Association stands compromised in their eyes as having 
sold out to the government. As you know, I do not believe that 
war can ever be of assistance in the bringing in of the Kingdom 
of God or is in any sense a creator of positive moral and spiritual 
values. If you analyze it carefully you will find that it is purely 
a material thing, waged by material means and usually for 
material ends. It therefore always involves a tremendous spirit- 
ual defeat or loss because the spiritual is thrust into the back- 
ground. It represents the surrender of the spiritual to the physi- 
cal and material. 


154 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Now, if the Association launches its work on a low level, it 
will get, and deserve to get, only the second-class men. All the 
men with any spirit and heroism will be ashamed to enlist in what 
appears to be a “safe job.” One of the Canadian secretaries 
with whom I lived for a week just before he started for France 
told me that, although he would be working right up in the 
trenches and running just as much risk as many other branches 
of the service, he would be looked upon as a “‘slacker” by some 
when he got home. Unless the Association work is planned on 
the heroic level, it will lose all its heroic spirits once fighting com- 
mences. , 

I realize that I have not answered your question as to what 
Princeton ought to do. Until you know what kind of plans the 
Army and Navy Department of the International Committee 
have in mind, I would not commit myself. This idea of “mobiliz- 
ing the spiritual resources of the nation,” about which you hear 
so much in Europe, is a travesty of religion. Let’s not be led 
into any such disloyalty. 

You may think I have taken this matter overseriously, 
but believe me, Tom, two months in a military center like 
Aldershot makes one rethink everything he ever thought about 
politics and religion, and I came to realize that the fundamental 
problems of democracy and Protestantism are bound up in this 
issue. 

I shall follow with intense interest what is done. I am frank 
to say that I am not ready to commit myself for Association 
work on the principle set forth in Charlie’s letter. I am not 
sure but that a truer witness could be borne as a stretcher-bearer 
or in some such capacity where you could really share the hard- 


ship and risk. 


Obviously such a statement of the case could not be ignored. 
Chaplin was invited down from Hartford Seminary and a 
meeting was called in my room in Byers Hall. Among others, 
Henry Wright and Dean Brown were present. Chaplin stuck 
by his guns, and, inasmuch as he had done more thinking on 
the matter than the rest, rather carried the day so far as the 
argument went. Professor Wright was driven in on himself 


The Army—at Plattsburg 155 


and forced to think the whole matter over again. We sepa- 
rated after midnight thinking long thoughts. 

Professor Wright finally arrived at the conclusion that 
Christian forces could and ought to work through the chap- 
laincy and the Association to do all they could for the troops, 
and at the same time they should keep their moral judgment. 
By virtue of equal sacrifice they should earn the right to pro- 
claim the whole of the Gospel anywhere with no “moratorium 
on righteousness,” as Chaplin had phrased it. 

The necessity for an insistence upon the whole Gospel in 
these days of hate and terror was borne in on his soul. He 
began studying the letters, articles, and books of various war 
writers. There was a formidable array of evidence that with 
all good intentions spiritual leaders were diluting religion into 
a mixture of Old Testament imprecations and patriotism, with 
no little self-righteousness and _ self-forgiveness. Professor 
Wright openly condemned the half-gospel of war time and 
insisted that the conflict was a crusade in which it was un- 
necessary to curtail one iota of the teaching of Jesus. He 
often used the letter of Mr. Chaplin, who gave permission, 
to get the problem well stated before a group and would then 
build up from it by an appeal to sacrificial service on the same 
heroic plane that was necessary for the troops. 

In connection with the current lenient views popularly 
taken toward moral irregularities among soldiers, another 
phase of the war time half-gospel, he occasionally used John 
Hay’s poem, Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle: 


Wall, no! I can’t tell whar he lives, 
Because he don’t live, you see; 
Leastways, he’s got out of the habit 
Of livin’ like you and me. 
Whar have you been for the last three year 
That you haven’t heard folks tell 
How Jimmy Bludso passed in his checks 
The night of the “Prairie Belle’? 


156 


Life of Henry B. Wright 


He weren’t no saint—them engineers 
Is all pretty much alike,— 
One wife in Natchez-under-the-Hill 
And another one here in Pike; 
A keerless man in his talk was Jim, 
And an awkward hand in a row, 
But he never flunked and he never lied,— 
I reckon he never knowed how. 


And this was all the religion he had,— 
To treat his engine well; 
Never be passed on the river; 
To mind the pilot’s bell; 
And if ever the “Prairie Belle’ took fire,— 
A thousand times he swore 
He’d hold her nozzle agin the bank 
Till the last soul got ashore. 


All boats has their day on the Mississipp, 
And her day come at last,— 

The “Movastar” was a better boat, 
But the “Belle” she wouldn’t be passed. 

And so she came tearin’ along that night— 
The oldest craft on the line— 

With a nigger squat on her safety-valve, 
And her furnace crammed, rosin and pine. 


The fire bust out as she clared the bar 
And burnt a hole in the night, 
And quick as a flash she turned and made 
For that willer-bank on the right. 
There was runnin’ and cursin’, but Jim yelled out 
Over all the infernal roar: 
“Tl hold her nozzle agin the bank 
Till the last galoot’s ashore.” 


Through the black, hot breath of the burnin’ boat 
Jim Bludso’s voice was heard, 
And they all had trust in his cussedness 
And knowed he would keep his word. 
And, sure’s you’re born, they all got off 
Afore the smoke-stacks fell,— 
And Bludso’s ghost went up alone 
In the smoke of the “Prairie Belle.” 


The Army—at Plattsburg 157 


He weren’t no saint,—but at jedgment 
I'd run my chance with Jim, 
Longside of some pious gentlemen 
That wouldn’t shook hands with him. 
He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing,— 
And went for it thar and then; 
And Christ ain’t a-going to be too hard 
On a man that died for men. 


Anyone steeped, as was Professor Wright, in Auschlyus, 
Sophocles, Plato, and the teachings of Jesus, could not accept 
this philosophy. Christianity was founded on an ethical basis 
—yjustice—rather than a good-humored and slack forgiveness. 
He saw the cycle of sin, retribution, and reconciliation run- 
ning through the Orestiad, the tale of @dipus, and espe- 
cially in the New Testament. His whole soul revolted against 
the partial approach to the problems of sin. Even amid the 
most vexatious and serious problems of the war he held that 
the Christian should stand by all the Gospel. It was an em- 
phasis sorely needed in days of dilution and compromise. 
Robert E. Speer remarked: 


I remember a fine speech of Henry’s at some war-time con- 
ference where I was present, in which he dealt with the Jim 
Bludso philosophy that was so common: that a soldier was his 
own redeemer; that any man who died as a soldier died washed 
away his own sins and achieved his own salvation. I remember 
the scorn with which Henry dealt with this idea, and the con- 
tempt that he poured out on it as a principle of life to be held 
up before soldiers. 


Mr. Speer wrote to Henry: “I thank you again for the 
good I got from what you said yesterday. May God bless 
you more and more and continue to make you a blessing.” 
Until the end of the war Henry Wright ministered to men in 
all sorts of grave troubles with power and effectiveness be- 
cause he linked equality of sacrifice with a Christian gospel 
rooted in valid ethical principles. He was quick to forgive 
and as sympathetic as any tender-hearted child, but he knew 


158 Life of Henry B. Wright 


and appreciated the inexorability of the moral law. He be- 
lieved in the efficacy of sacrificial love to work a reconciliation 
with the past, making restitution as far as possible, but he 
distinguished between the road to the Cross and Easter Day 
and the road to Valhalla. His power of discernment and 
the element of finality in his dealings with dark problems gave 
him a position of authority among his colleagues and with the 
troops; both knew that he stood for a complete gospel. He 
could say truly: “I have not shunned to declare unto you all 
the counsel of God.” 

The Lusitania had been torpedoed. Then came the un- 
restricted submarine warfare, the Germans prescribing a zone 
about England in which U-boat commanders were ordered to 
sink all vessels. A safe passage through a designated sea lane 
was guaranteed to only a limited number of ships per week. 
These terms could not be tolerated by the American govern- 
ment. Interception of the Zimmerman note, proving Ger- 
many’s efforts to cause trouble between the United States and 
Mexico, increased the tension. President Wilson exchanged 
dispatches with the Imperial German Government resulting 
in an even more provocative attitude upon the part of the 
latter. Count von Bernsdorff was handed his passports. 
Came April 6, 1917, and we were at war! A little family 
council was held at 20 Livingston Street, in which each dis- 
cussed his plans and received the advice of the others. Ray 
Culver and several others of the younger men who had had 
connection with the Y.M.C.A. decided to help in its war work 
for a few weeks until the Association should have time to 
replace them with men who were not within the fighting classes. 
Culver joined Robert P. Wilder in the work of the Religious 
Work Bureau of the National War Work Council in New York 
City. He later enlisted in the Navy and became an ensign. 
Professor Wright was sent by the Association to be chief of 
its religious work at Plattsburg for the First Reserve Officers’ 
Training Camp. Dean Swan of the Yale Law School allowed 
me to take my final examinations early and I accompanied 


The Army—at Plattsburg 159 


him. Henry Wright led the way for his friends in giving his 
service to what he believed the right side in the conflict. 

Arriving in New York, enroute to Plattsburg, Professor 
Wright found the Grand Central Station thronged with men 
going to the great training camp. Numbers of Yale men 
from classes running back as far as 1898 knew and greeted him. 
A great spirit was abroad; they were all entering on high 
adventure. 

The following morning, May 12, in the wet chill fog from 
Lake Champlain Henry Wright entered the new hut at the 
camp. During the next five months it was my privilege to be 
with him and to observe his work nearly every hour of the day 
and night. 

Professor Wright made himself useful as soon as he arrived 
by sweeping up blocks and shavings and arranging supplies. 
The roomy building, with its smell of fresh pine lumber, soon 
became habitable, equipped with those comforts and facilities 
dear to soldiers’ hearts. 

Frank Howe was General Secretary, a wise, genial Chris- 
tian gentleman who had served in the Army Y.M.C.A. for 
the British. His good sense, humility, energy, and devotion 
to duty endeared him to hundreds. Associated with him was 
John McCurdy, who later served as a private and as an 
officer in the Field Artillery in France. During the ensuing 
weeks the staff changed from time to time, upwards of twenty 
men serving on it during the course of the summer. 

The problem how best to meet the needs of the men in 
training was studied and appropriate measures were taken. 
The schedule of the officer candidates was very full: only 
thirty minutes each day, from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m., were given 
over to strictly personal use and recreation. ‘The tireless 
devotion of these youthful leaders to their work was inspiring. 
Those who went up to the training camps in 1917 were the 
flower of American youth, and, whatever cynicism the old age 
of the War may have brought, there burned in these ardent 
young hearts the pure flame of sacrifice and valor. With 


160 Life of Henry B. Wright 


their full schedules certain kinds of recreation or entertain- 
ment were obviously impossible. ‘Two services were arranged 
for each Sunday, an early morning communion and a preach- 
ing service at ten o’clock. To these were brought the best 
ministers available: Bishop Lloyd, of New York City; Bishop 
Lawrence, of Boston; Dr. Thayer, headmaster of St. Mark’s 
School; Dr. Gunsaulus, of Chicago; Dean Charles R. Brown, 
of Yale; and many others of like ability. Dean Brown also 
gave his famous lecture on “Abraham Lincoln.” 

One of the bright spots of the work at the first Officers’ 
Training Camp at Plattsburg was the visit of Charles M. 
Alexander, who with his songs and pocket Testaments and his 
winsome personality both delighted and inspired the men. Over 
one hundred pledged themselves to carry and read their pocket 
Testaments. It was pleasing to see the friendship which de- 
veloped between him and Professor Wright. The scholar in 
philology, well versed in the origins of the Scriptures and lib- 
eral in theology, was perfectly congenial in all vital matters 
with the ardent evangelist with little theological training and 
that of a distinctly conservative nature. Later at Camp 
Devens they were associated in several projects. 

During these days of rush and development Professor 
Wright was a constant source of ideas. His capacity for 
arriving at conclusions from a number of concrete instances, 
gained in historical research, was of the greatest value. He 
could prophesy what would be the result of some policy with 
amazing judgment. 

Staff meetings were generally placed in his hands. He 
would select a portion of Scripture, illuminate it, and apply 
it to the daily tasks. Almost all passages and thoughts which 
he employed had been worked over in his morning watch. In 
matters of punctilio and neatness, he was rigid. Civilians to 
commend themselves to army men should be under as stern 
self-imposed discipline as that to which the enlisted men were 
subject. In talking of inner restraint he would hark back to 
I Corinthians 6:12: 


The Army—at Plattsburg 161 


All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient ; 
all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under 
the power of any. 


He could make a passage like I Corinthians 9:19-23 glow 
with spiritual meaning: 


For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself 
servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews 
I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that 
are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that 
are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law 
(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), 
that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak be- 
came I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all 
things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And 
this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof 
with you. 


At one time when the staff was a bit weary and it was 
difficult to see how to charge routine service and menial work 
with spiritual meaning he selected I Corinthians 12: 28-31: 


And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, second- 
arily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts 
of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all 
apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers 
of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with 
tongues? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: 
and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. 


The word “helps” was transfigured for the entire staff and 
thenceforth stood out upon the pages of their Bibles in letters 
of gold. 

He wrote to Robert E. Speer: 


We are getting on splendidly here, with a well-balanced staff. 
The work grows in romance each day, and the greatest joy is to 
have the new men learn the joy of personal evangelism for Christ. 


162 Life of Henry B. Wright 


The staff conferences were springs of living water to thirsty 
men spending themselves in fifteen hours of hard work each 
day. The most difficult work he chose for himself, feeling that 
the right to talk about sacrifice and unselfish labor came only 
to those who were willing to do the hardest and dirtiest jobs. 
A weakened lung denied him the privilege of being in the Army, 
but as he faced Henry Curran, Herbert Gallaudet, and others 
of the class of 798 in uniform, he resolved that he would give 
himself as wholly to God’s service as they had dedicated them- 
selves to the Allied cause, and he communicated this mood to 
others. 

Although Professor Wright had never been in an army 
camp before, he quickly caught the atmosphere of discipline, 
and appreciated it. After seven days of work he brought the 
following “Suggestions from the first week at Plattsburg” 
before the staff meeting—suggestions which were sent to the 
New York office and later used in other camps: 


1. Each staff should have on it at least one man who has 
already had experience in army work, who should O.K. every 
scheme suggested by the other four secretaries. No scheme— 
athletic, educational, social, or religious—should be put in opera- 
tion without his sanction. We have had no friction with officers 
or clergy at Plattsburg and the reason for it is F. L. Howe 
(General Secretary). 

2. Win the local Y.M.C.A. Secretary. His advice and 
sympathetic counsel are invaluable. It is best that the local 
secretary be not a regular member of the staff because of the 
constant call on his time by his own constituency. He should, 
however, be a consulting member. 

3. Unify the staff of five secretaries at the start. Talk over 
all schemes together for at least half an hour each day. 

4, Win the chaplain, no matter how long it takes or how 
many of your own pet schemes have to be delayed. 

5. Create opportunities with the men for the chaplain and 
for the more retiring members of the secretarial staff. 

6. Don’t get ahead of a program which the chaplain or the 
majority of the secretarial staff are able to carry out. 


The Army—at Plattsburg 163 


7. Y.M.C.A. time is fifteen minutes ahead of army time. 
Get in the morning watch before reveille. If you do not, it will 
not be done. 

8. Supply what is lacking on the part of other existing 
physical, educational, social, and religious agencies. Never com- 
pete. 

9. “No day without a man for Christ.” 

10. Do not overdo organized religious work at first. Let it 
come naturally. All religious work with men driven as the officers 
are must be restful and supply a need. 

11. Let the personal work at first be directed at three classes 
of men—the sin-bound, the nervous, and the unhappy. You can 
tell them as they sit or walk alone. Do not talk Christ to a 
busy man. Camp on his trail. 

12. Glorify the commonplace. The question as to whether 
you will be regarded as a “‘ribbon counter clerk” or God’s own 
representative when you sell a two cent stamp lies not with the 
job but with the way you perform it. 

13. Do not overlook your responsibility to the help about 
the camp—the waiters, carpenters, etc. 

14. Do not depend on general announcements to the men from 
headquarters. Have an outpost in each company through whom 
to spread news. 

15. Walk about the grounds with a definite purpose when out 
of the building. If the soldiers get the impression that a secre- 
tary has time to be a spectator, they will hold a like impression 
regarding the place of the work in the camp. 

16. Find out the peculiar sins of each camp. 

17. The building should at all times maintain an air of rest- 
ful, quiet dignity in which it is the natural thing to pass from 
a question about routine to a question of personal intimacy. 
The shouting of one secretary to another, “rough-house,” work- 
ing in shirt sleeves, carrying on of arguments over trifles, eating 
food, etc., destroys this. 

18. Do not accept invitations to speak in churches or 
Y.M.C.A.’s outside without the written permission from the 
International Committee in New York. Your work is in the 
camp. 

19. On Saturday afternoon and evening and on Sunday the 


164 Life of Henry B. Wright 


religious work secretary should be where the men are. This need 
not be in the building. 

20. Don’t let the piano be drummed or the graphophone be 
run when the soldiers are busy drilling outside the building. 
We ought to be busy when they are busy and take our relaxation 
when they do. A secretary running a graphophone when a 
soldier is drilling is ike a man playing the piano when you are 
trying to study. 

21. Avoid all bizarre or unusual clothing. 

22. Keep well shaven and policed up. 

23. Tests: (a) Do I wish all the other members of the staff 
to be such as I am? (b) If they were, what kind of a staff would 
it be? 


Contacts with men increased from day to day; the quiet 
dignity and gentlemanly bearing of the Yale teacher gave 
him the confidence of scores of these young collegians and busi- 
ness men. He was constantly occupied about the building, 
quietly talking to some one from Amherst or Vermont, from 
Princeton or Yale or Harvard. Almost no day passed when 
through his ministry of service and fellowship some man did 
not signify his allegiance to Christ. A characteristic of his 
work was that it brought judgment day to men. In these 
hurried weeks at Plattsburg, he lived in the confessional. False 
men wrote back to restore broken relationships; dishonest men 
sought to make restitution. Many a divided and distraught 
personality found through him the unity and peace which his 
soul desired; others gained courage to face the inevitable on 
the Western Front. ‘These are the happiest and fullest days 
I have ever lived,” Professor Wright wrote to Mr. Speer. 

The literature used by the Army Y.M.C.A. was being 
arranged during the weeks immediately succeeding America’s 
entrance into the War. Robert E. Speer was asked to take 
charge of these publications. One night Professor Wright 
wrote out as suggestions several useful chapters in books or 
pamphlets, which Mr. Speer approved. The list contained 


The Army—at Plattsburg 165 


a discourse by Horace Bushnell, “The Lost Purity Restored,” 
which was widely read. 

Before he went to camp, Professor Wright had procured a 
copy of Donald Hankey’s A Student in Arms and was cap- 
tivated by the chapter on “The Beloved Captain.” E. P. 
Dutton & Company graciously gave their consent to let the 
chapter be used, with certain restrictions, the edition to bear 
the imprint: “Printed privately. Permission is given for use 
at Plattsburg Officers’ Training Camp only.” Later Mr. 
Speer received permission to send it throughout the Army. 
At Plattsburg we numbered each copy and kept a record of 
those who had received them. A remarkable impression was 
made by this tiny pamphlet. The student officers dedicated to 
the Allied cause were in the mood for its high spiritual appeal. 
Copies came back frayed and worn, sometimes having been read 
by fifty men. Lieutenants read it to their platoons, captains 
to their companies, one major to his battalion. When per- 
mission came, we sent it to friends in other camps. Henry 
Hobson, Yale 14, wrote from Fort Riley, Kansas: 


Will you ask Henry Wright to have two hundred printed 
for me, if it is not too much trouble? I have several copies of 
“The Student in Arms” now and have lent it to any number 
of fellows. It is a great book. 


Buell Hammett, Yale ’18, from Santa Barbara, replied: 


“The Beloved Captain” was not only appreciated by me but 
by many other boys who are out here waiting to get into the 
second camp at the Presidio, 


Kenneth Biglow, Yale °19, in Fort Meyer, Virginia, wrote: 


I certainly did enjoy “The Beloved Captain” and thank you 
for sending it. I forwarded the other copy to Ray. 


Oliver B. Cunningham of the Class of °1'77 who later fell on 
the field of honor in France, answered: 


166 Life of Henry B. Wright 


I was very glad to receive your letter containing the little 
pamphlet, “The Beloved Captain.” I read that with a thrill 
and recognize that it tells of the sort of officer every one of us 
should be. I passed it on to a friend of mine here and know it 
will go the rounds of our battery. I am keeping one of them, 
for that day when everything looks dark. It comes to every one 
sometime, I guess. 


At least a score of such letters followed. The very fact 
that this pamphlet was passed about privately added to its 
appeal. Professor Wright was constantly thinking of ways in 
which he could suggest to men how they could use their powers 
for moral leadership. 

Day after day Henry Wright was meeting individuals and 
groups. Men whom he had instructed in college came to him; 
they brought friends, and he made many new ones. Groups 
for quiet discussion, fellowship, and prayer met almost every 
night, and on some nights he had two and three. His skill 
in selecting Bible passages was an immense help in these 
little meetings. 

During the middle of the summer he was invited to teach 
at the Y.M.C.A. College at Springfield in a course especially 
arranged for men who were to go into the Army work. I 
accompanied him on these trips. He held the standards and 
requirements high in his addresses. Nothing short of com- 
plete sacrificial dedication would suffice for those who were 
working with men who might die tomorrow. Emphasis was 
laid upon secret prayer, upon hard work, personal discipline, 
orderliness, and upon insight which took routine duty out of 
the realm of welfare work and made it sacramental. Some 
thought he held standards too high, but if all had caught 
his idea of what the work should be, their service would have 
made an even finer chapter in Association history. 

On one of his stays at Springfield a group conceived the 
idea of binding themselves together to keep a period of per- 
sonal devotions each day, and the following notice concerning 
the scheme was sent to various groups: 


The Army—at Plattsburg 167 


The League to keep the Morning Watch sprang up spon- 
taneously among the group of men in training for Army 
Y.M.C.A. service at the International Y.M.C.A. College at 
Springfield, Massachusetts, as the result of a determination on 
the part of many to keep this early tryst with God. 

The League, if such it can be called, involves no dues and has 
no program other than prayer and Bible study for spiritual 
power. It seeks to unite in prayer and in the knowledge of the 
Bible all Christian forces with the troops. 

We send our greetings to all men in the Chaplaincy and in 
the Army and Navy Y.M.C.A. Secretaryship, hoping that this 
idea will commend itself to you and that you, too, will be keeping 
this early prayer time with us. We feel confident that the 
assurance that other men are praying at the same time we pray 
will be a great bond between us. 

Faithfully yours in Christ’s service, 
O. R. McATEE 
Wiruam G. JuNKIN 
Freperick GEIR 
GEORGE STEWART, JR. 
Witiiam H. McCance 
Davin N. Bracn, JR. 
Henry B. Wricut 


Professor Wright slept on trains and ate where he could 
during this period, working four days each week at Platts- 
burg. This trying schedule put a sore strain upon his reserves 
of strength. 

Now and then he was called to New York to address groups 
about to sail overseas or to advise with those in authority. One 
particular instance was notable. He was in New York to meet 
a large group who were sailing in a few days for France. Be- 
ing very tired, he found preparation for his address exceed- 
ingly difficult. After a very hot night he arose apparently 
much refreshed. After his private devotions, he remarked that 
he had his idea for the address he was to make. “I must get 
hold of some one who can play the piano,” he said; “I am going 
to use the Glawbenmotiv from Parsifal. Our secretaries ard 


168 Life of Henry B. Wright 


chaplains must make the boys hear that in the time of tempta- 
tion and of death.” We set out in different directions to dis- 
cover a book containing the score he desired. After some 
search each secured a copy, and he was fortunate enough to 
find a man who was a pianist. The men were tired, the day 
hot, and something unusual was necessary to captivate their 
interest. Professor Wright spoke to them simply of the great 
tests of the human spirit which the days ahead held for them 
and those whom they served. As he spoke briefly of each test, 
he asked if they would be able to hear the faith Motiv and 
whether they could get others to hear it. Each time he came 
to this question, the man at the piano would play the beautiful 














No. 3. FAITH MOTIVE (GLAUBENMOTIY). 

eA KERN RAIA RASHAVAMA LA A 

ran a ss B 

$ i =a Ss | -< 

—— cee 

yi v ee f JL, A 7 A =? -etc. 

fei-b-5t re ee fe te 

pp" ie Spee ee ee 


boss bw 
notes. The group was a mixed crowd of college Prarenantel 
pastors and business men. Professor Wright’s talk conveyed 
to them an impression of the genius of the Y.M.C.A. War 
Work in a few minutes, which days of instruction might have 
failed to give. ‘They were to incarnate the wishes of God and 
to make men feel His presence in the day of great tribulation. 

The staff was strengthened during the summer by the addi- 
tion of Wiliam H. McCance of the Class of Yale 718, and 
Elmore M. McKee, Yale 719. Professor Wright was exceed- 
ingly fond of these two men, whom he had known well at Yale. 
Their service was notable because of their wide acquaintance 
and the quality of their lives. McCance afterward enlisted as 
a private, winning a lieutenant’s commission in the Field Artil- 
lery. After the War he graduated from the Yale Divinity 
School, and later served as a missionary under the American 
Board at Ahmednagar, India. Elmore McKee was commis- 
sioned in the Sanitary Corps and performed distinguished 


The Army—at Plattsburg 169 


service in the suppression of vice around camps and in great 
cities frequented by soldiers and sailors on leave. Upon the 
close of hostilities he also pursued the theological course in 
the Yale Divinity School and became rector of St. Paul’s, New 
Haven. Both served as secretaries in the Yale Y.M.C.A. 
during a part of their course in the Divinity School. They are 
typical of a large group of first-rate students to whom Henry 
Wright meant more than any other human being. Their ser- 
vice at Plattsburg was greatly appreciated by officers and men 
alike. 

As the first camp at Plattsburg drew to a close, Professor 
Wright received an invitation to be director of religious work 
for the Y.M.C.A. at Camp Devens, located at Ayer, Massa- 
chusetts. He accepted the invitation and made plans for a 
long absence from the University. Dean Brown gave per- 
mission for him to be absent for a year provided he carry two 
courses. 

After the United States had been at war four months there 
were great searchings of heart among the younger men in 
Association work, who wished above all things to face the crisis 
in an honest manner. Because of this difficulty in the minds of 
many friends, Professor Wright asked me to go apart with 
him to Oakham before Camp Devens opened; there we wrote 
a report of the work at Plattsburg, with a special paper on 
the matter of exemptions. Professor Wright despatched a 
note to Mr. Mott regarding this report: 


My dear Mott: 

George Stewart and I have finally found time to finish a 
report of the Army Y.M.C.A. work at the first Plattsburg 
Training Camp. ‘To this are appended two very important 
letters criticising our work. Following these are the conclusions 
which we have come to regarding exemption of secretaries and 
a remarkable document by Elmore McKee on hospital visitation 
in army camps. Will you please see that Brockman, Tichenor, 
Towson, and Wilder have a chance to read it if they care to? 


170 Life of Henry B. Wright 


There are only four copies of this report in existence. You have 
one, Knebel another, and Stewart and I the other two. God’s 
spirit is with us mightily here. The only way I can account 
for it is the answer to countless prayers. 
We enjoyed John’s visit so much. 
Faithfully, 
Henry B. Wricut 

P.S.—I believe we are slowly but surely evolving a real science 
of army work. Certain principles seem established. 


A portion of the paper on exemption is of interest as re- 
vealing the problems which young men were forced to solve 
aright at the peril of their manhood. 


The experience of the staff at Plattsburg indicates that the 
question as to whether the Y.M.C.A. will claim exemption from 
military service for those of its secretaries who are physically 
fit between the ages of 21 and 31, or whether it will aid and 
promote measures taken by the secretaries themselves, will be a 
prime factor in deciding whether the work of the Association 
in the Army will be merely a piece of routine social service or the 
creation of courage, honesty, unselfishness, and vicariousness 
among the troops. 

It will be readily seen that there are three distinct groups 
of men from which the leadership of the Army Y.M.C.A. must 
come: (1) those above draft age; (2) those within draft age 
who are uncalled, physically unfit, or otherwise ineligible; (3) 
men of draft age whose only claim for exemption lies in their 
being in a certain class, namely, Army Young Men’s Christian 
Association workers. . 

If the high function of the Army Young Men’s Christian As- 
sociation is actually to create morale among the men of the 
Army; if the secret of morale is a willingness to make the com- 
plete sacrifice; if the chief enemy of morale is the theory that a 
man is so indispensable elsewhere that he should be protected 
from the possibility of death; and if it be true that the only way 
to propagate ideals successfully is to incarnate them—it becomes 
apparent that the attitude of that group of our secretaries be- 
tween the ages of 21 and 31 toward the draft will largely de- 


The Army—at Plattsburg 171 


termine whether the whole movement will be keyed up to self- 
sacrifice or rest on self-interest. 

The attitude of this smallest group will also largely determine 
the spirit of the work of the other two groups of secretaries. If 
we withhold from the field of military endeavor those whom we 
might have given at distinct cost, we are almost certain to with- 
hold ourselves in our own field and to miss the spirit of abandon 
which is essential to making this “The greatest piece of Christian 
service the world has ever seen,” as Dr. Mott has expressed the 
ideal of the Association to be. ... 

A man of spirit who has been exempted is apt to eat his heart 
out worrying whether or not he has done the right thing; on 
the other hand, if a man has no compunctions about accepting a 
position free from the suffering and exposure his friends are 
enduring, it is prima facie evidence that he is not worthy to min- 
ister to men soon to meet God. ... 

Furthermore, it seems unwise to us to exempt men physically 
fit and of draft age for the following practical reasons: 

(1) Some men will be exempted because of special influence, 
or it will be thought that such is the case, and this will tend to 
shake the confidence of many able men in our leaders. 

(2) Some men on a staff will be exempted, others will not; 
this will breed discontent. 

(3) It is unfair to the loyal and able men on a staff to put 
them in a position where they shall be compelled to explain the 
exemption of a member of the staff. 

(4) We are in a position of strength when we go into the 
camp, having deliberately decided to answer the call of the 
Government when it comes. Such an attitude inspires confidence 
and respect. 

(5) It will be extremely difficult for a student secretary or 
other secretary to return to his field and to minister to men who 
have faced German machine guns. Spiritual power over these 
men demands equality of sacrifice by those determined fit to make 
such a sacrifice... . 

(6) Many good men will be taken for the Army if the Asso- 
ciation makes no effort to secure their exemption or does not 
aid them by affidavits or otherwise. However, we can spare these 
men for the spiritual welfare of the work... . 


172 Life of Henry B. Wright 


(7) When the strain becomes greater in the coming months, 
the type of man who will be secured by recruiting agencies will 
be largely determined by the traditions of the secretaries who 
have preceded them, whether they be those of heroism or of self- 
consideration. 

(8) The men who enter the Army are not divorcing them- 
selves from the work of Christ’s Kingdom but prove invaluable 
helpers to the work. 


This statement was sent to Dr. John R. Mott together 
with two important letters, one by an Episcopal pastor and one 
by a theological student, criticizing certain phases of the Army 
work, in order that all appropriate adjustments and correc- 
tions could be quickly made. Dr. Mott and the National War 
Work Council had apparently arrived at the position set forth 
in this paper, and they made public their policy of non-exemp- 
tion of workers when called to the colors. This attitude antici- 
pated the action taken later by Secretary of War Newton D. 
Baker that such men should not fall within the exempted cate- 
gories, an attitude which did much to fortify the work spiritu- 
ally. 

Professor Wright now turned to Camp Devens, the scene of 
one of the most glorious of life’s experiences for him. 


CHAPTER X 
THE ARMY—CAMP DEVENS 


They have charged us with unearthly power to make 
The Future—the only tribute they desire. 

Can we bear life as they bore night and fire? 

Now, are we taking counsel for their sake? 

This is one faith a nation cannot break 

Though comfort rule, though sloth and craft conspire, 
And disillusion image all things dire 

And greed go softly, fearing lest men wake. 


In a far earthquake land and ruinous 
Their bodies fell, their minds through us made sure 
Of sacrifice as a new world’s foundation. 
They have fulfilled their bond. It lies with us 
Through deeds—not words—to show if they endure 
A living light, the spirit of a nation. 

—WixuiAM Rose BENET, Yale ’07, 

Yale Commemoration Ode. 


HE great training camps in America were built as if 

some Titan had marshaled the resources of modern 
industrialism and focused them upon certain localities. 

At Camp Devens trains of lumber and building materials were 
unloaded overnight. Carpenters and masons were conjured 
forth from a hundred cities and towns. Huge steam shovels 
rooted up saplings and gouged jagged brown scars in the 
morainal drift. Roads were thrust through rocky ridges and 
over bogs and in a week’s time hundreds of motors thundered 
along newly made highways, arcs and search-lights dispelled 
darkness, and the sound of the hammer was heard twenty-four 
hours each day. Weather-beaten engineers, with cigar butts 


clinched in their teeth and rolls of blue prints under their arms, 
| 173 


174 Life of Henry B. Wright 


hurried about in motor-cycles. Mixed with the varied colors 
of civilian work costume was the khaki of the military, which 
came in increasing quantity. Amid this fury of work the Army 
Y huts were erected in each regiment, spacious, complete and 
comfortable, on the same time schedule as the barracks. Camp 
Devens was taking form. 

Then came the soldiers; first the new officers, graduates 
from the first camp at Plattsburg, alert, elate, determined 
men, with a rich heritage of body, mind, and heart. National 
Guard units next arrived, and following them came numbers 
of non-commissioned officers of the regular army to help whip 
the draft army regiments into first line troops, a taciturn, 
capable lot, with no little scorn for the new officers over them 
and the raw material with which they were to work. Finally 
came the first recruits of the draft army of 1917. The Sev- 
enty-sixth Division received them from all over New England 
and northern New York. ‘They came first by the dozen, then 
by scores, then by train loads, long queues of men winding the 
roads to their barracks, often wearing broad silk ribbons on 
which were printed the names of the towns or counties from 
which they came—a motley, noisy, unknown quantity, a new 
factor in the Great War. They were greeted at the train by 
their boyish officers, and the two would look at each other with 
equal curiosity and interest—new-made lieutenants and cap- 
tains receiving with marked embarrassment the awkward 
salutes of their charges—clerks, and students, and country 
boys, with no idea of the iron discipline by which liberty was 
to be obtained. 

After being shown their billets, the men flocked to the 
Y.M.C.A. huts. Often Professor Wright stood behind a 
counter from six o’clock until taps, meeting a line containing 
hundreds of men, giving to each a sheet of paper and an en- 
velope and a special word of greeting. I have seen soldiers 
stand and watch his face as he carried on his work, drinking 
in a radiance that reestablished faith. 

In the days following, many sought out the quiet, kindly 


The Army—Camp Devens 175 


gentleman who gave them that steadying, reassuring word 
when first they submitted themselves to the Army. How many 
came on those nights following the first bayonet practice will 
only be revealed on the judgment day—but certainly there 
were hundreds. 

The civilian mobs which thronged into the camp daily were 
gradually disciplined into soldiers. Clothing was not always 
forthcoming or well-fitting, and companies would be drilling 
half in khaki and half in civilian clothes. Most of the men 
wore to camp an old suit, which they would send home by 
parcel post from the nearest Y hut when they received their 
O. D. uniforms. But in due course these troops, officered by 
men in their twenties, would swing down the road with the 
smartness of a Guard regiment. In so great a readjustment of 
life, men responded to the crisis according to their natures. As 
it will be at the last trump, the courageous and the righteous 
and the decent were courageous and righteous still; the timid 
and the craven were timid and craven still. Hach man was re- 
vealed for what he was. In the center of this body of fifty 
thousand men was the teacher from Yale, serving, cheering, 
counseling, giving out the riches of his mind and heart. 

Henry Wright had arrived at Camp Devens on August 28, 
1917, just before the advent of the first recruits under the law 
constituting the National Army. He immediately put building 
No. 29 into commission for the incoming men, each building 
being placed in service as troops occupied adjacent barracks. 

A conference of the entire Association staff at Camp Devens 
was held on August 31, at Ashburnham, a beautiful village 
lying among the hills. The group met in a house facing a 
street glorified with a remarkable bronze statue by Bela Pratt, 
“The School Boy of 1850.” “One of a generation of New 
England boys,” the inscription read, ‘‘whose valor in war was 
equaled only by their achievements in peace.” ‘This confer- 
ence was notable for the spiritual unity and dedication of the 
staff and the fact that all departments interested in the Camp 
Devens Y.M.C.A. were represented. Not only the camp sec- 


SUNDAY SERVICES 


Camp Devens, Oct. 21, 1917 


ROMAN CATHOLIC SERVICE 
8.30 A. M. Mass will be said at the Knights of Columbus 
Building, near the Drill Grounds. 


ARMY Y. M. C. A. 
8.30 A. M. Communion Services (to which all are cordially 


invited) as follows: 

Building 21 (301st and 302d Field Artillery), conducted by Rev. H. C. Burr oF THE 
BAPTIST CHURCH. 

Building 22 (Heavy Artillery), conducted by Rev. P. F. Srurcis of THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Building 23 (near the Camp Post Office), conducted by Rev. H. K. BARTOW OF THE 
EPIscOPAL CHURCH. d ; 

Building 24 (Depot Brigade), conducted by Rev. F. F. PETERSON OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH 

Building 25 (Depot Brigade), conducted by Rev. W. S. ANDERSON OF THE CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCH, AND REv. C. A. FISHER OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Building 26(304th Infantry); conducted by Rev. FREDERICK BROWN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCH. 

Building 27 (303d Infantry), conducted by Rev. ANcus DuN oF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Building 28 (301st Infantry), conducted by Rev. F. B. CRANDALL OF THE UNITARIAN 
CHURCH, AND Rev. L. J. BERNHARDT OF THE METHODIST CHUREH. 

Building 29 (east of Telegraph Building), conducted by Rev. J. L. Cross oF THE 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 


10.30A.M. Religious Services open to men ofall denominations. 
Building 21 (301st and 302d Field Artillery), address by Rev. H. C. Burr. 
Building 22 (Heavy Artillery), address by Rev. P. F. Sturcis. 
Building 23 (near the Camp Post Office), address by Rev. HARRY EMERSON FOsDICK. 
Building 24 (Depot Brigade), led by Army Secretary, E. B. DoLan. : 
Building 25 (Depot Brigade), address by Rev. FREDERICK BROWN. 
Building 26 (304th: Infantry), address by Rev. F. F. PETERSON. 
Building 27 (303d Infantry), led by Army Secretary, L. C. Wricut.. 
Building. 28 (301st Infantry), address by Rev. C. A. FISHER. . 
Building 29 (east of Telegraph Building), address by Mr. Louts J. BERNHARDT. 


7.00 P.M. Evening Song Services open to men of all denom- 


inations. 
Building 21 (301st and 302d Field Artillery), conducted by Army Secretary, PHILP Birp. 
Building 21 (Industrial Extension) conducted by Army Secretary, G. F. HARVEY. 
Building 22 (Heavy Artillery), address by Mr. Louts J. BERNHARDT. 
Building 23 (near the Camp Post Office), conducted by Army Secretary, L. C. WRIGHT. 
Building 24 (Depot Brigade), address by Rev. G. E. PicKarp. 
Building 25 (Depot Brigade), address by Rev. W. S. ANDERSON. 
Building 26 (304th Infantry), address by REv. FREDERICK Brown. 
Building 27 (303d Infantry), conducted by Army Secretary, F. G. WHITE: 
Building 28 (301st Infantry), conducted by Army Secretary, L. D. Somers. 
Building 29 (east of Telegraph Building), conducted by Army Secretary, H. B. WRIGHT. 
Auditorium, Address by Rev. HARRY Emerson Fospick ‘oF New York City. 


Jewish Services 
7.00-7.45 P. M. Sabbath Services. 
Building 27 (303d Infantry), Friday, October 19, conducted by Mr. CoLeMAN SILBERT. 
Friday, October 26, conducted by Mr. CoLEMAN SILBERT. 
Greek Catholic Service 
9.30 A. M. Sunday, October 21. 


Building 28 (301st Infantry), communion by-Rev. FATHER VANGEL BReVEsiIS and address 
Mr. ConsTAanT PANDos. 


~ Buntey & Turner, Printer, Ayer, Moma ~- 





Sunday Program, Camp Devens, Massachusetts 
176 


ARMY AND NAVY 
YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 
“WITH THE COLORS’ 


‘m1.0.A. Neck ; 
Cc : Digvews MW.74 - 
IS. 1919 


TO THE WRITER: SAVE BY WRITING ON BOTH SIDES OF THIS PAPER 
TO THE FOLKS AT HOME: SAVE FOOD, BUY LIBERTY BONDS AND WAR SAVINGS STAMPS 





Facsimile of Letter 
177 


178 Life of Henry B. Wright 


retaries were present, but the New York Headquarters were 
represented by Dr. Orr, Paul Super and Jay Urice, the East- 
ern Department by Edward W. Hearne, E. O. Andrews of 
Newport, and G. R. Merriam of Westfield, and H. C. de 
Anguera and W. W. Peck in charge of building operations. 

The staff at Devens was a mixed group of business and 
professional men, teachers, ministers, and regular Y.M.C.A. 
secretaries, held together by a common purpose. Kenneth 
Robbie, an able and energetic man with a keen eye for personnel 
and business detail, served as Camp Secretary from August, 
1917, to January, 1918, when he was succeeded by Arthur 
Hoffmire. The latter served until May, 1919, when he became 
the Executive Secretary of the Northeastern Department of 
the National War Work Council. Closely associated with 
Professor Wright, who was Director of Religious Work, was 
William D. Barnes, Yale ’07, who finally succeeded him in 
May, 1919, when the former returned to New Haven. One 
of the joys of Professor Wright’s life was to work side by 
side with men he had taught in college. . Friendships formed 
in this service were strong and permanent. The relationship 
was not a one-sided affection for Professor Wright, for his 
co-workers brought gifts of understanding and experience 
which his university career had not afforded. Such men as 
Fred G. White, Gren O. Pierrel, William F. Slade, Philip S. 
Bird, Joseph Palmer, in the camp educational and religious 
work; W. W. Peck and Fred Stephenson in the social activi- 
ties; A. E. Metzdorf, the gifted and genial recreation expert; 
and Converse Lincoln, Lawrence C. Davis, and M. F. Peterson 
in the business department, were men of parts and wide ex- 
perience. “Nearly three hundred and fifty secretaries were 
employed during the war at Camp Devens,” said Arthur Hoff- 
mire. ‘I do not know of a single man from oldest to youngest 
who did not seek interviews with Henry on all sorts of 
subjects.” 

The work continued to grow, as the high caliber of the sec- 


The Army—Camp Devens 179 


retaries commended it to troops and officers alike. Staff per- 
sonnel changed constantly as younger members enlisted in the 
Army or Navy and trained men were sent to France or to 
assume positions of administrative responsibility. Because of 
his wide acquaintance among college men for twenty-five years, 
Henry Wright did invaluable service in recruiting the staff to 
meet expansion in the work and to replace those who left. 

A staff meeting at Devens, as at Plattsburg, was an event. 
Professor Wright ordinarily conducted devotional exercises, 
skilfully choosing his Scripture passages and giving short talks 
lightened by humor and replete with keen insight. Paradox 
and analogy, often provocative, gave zest to these conferences, 
permeated by the spirit of sympathy and understanding. One 
talk was on “Heresies which will afflict secretaries in army 
work.” The six points in this discourse were: 


1. To say a janitor can be hired to do the dirty work. 

2. To say a man can get along without the morning watch. 

3. To say a man can get sloppy in his dress and be unshaven. 

4. To say executive work will take the place of personal 
evangelism. 

5. To say “My influence in the camp will count for so much 
that I need not personally speak to men about Jesus Christ and 
their souls.” This exalts one’s personality above the power of 
God to work through us. 

6. To say that “the commonplace cannot be glorified: that 
is, that the selling of stamps or money orders, the checking of 
valuables, and the care of writing tables cannot be made a means 
to the salvation of souls.” 


Heavy Sunday schedules and numerous personal interviews 
in addition to regular duties were a grievous strain upon 
Professor Wright’s health. His arrested case of tuberculosis 
made him an easy victim of colds, and the crowded army huts 
were dangerous places for a man in his physical condition. 
Speaking in packed mess halls, sometimes five and six times in 
the course of a Sunday’s work, as he was often forced to do, 


180 Life of Henry B. Wright 


was the worst possible procedure if he were considering his own 
well-being. In the more regulated life at the University he 
sometimes had a struggle to keep fit in the winter months, 
and at Camp Devens he twice came dangerously near pneu- 
monia. 


I have had a heavy cold for the last few days that went down 
onto my chest a little [he wrote on December 13, 1917], so I 
have kept in and shall probably not get back to Devens till 
December 21. Headquarters have ordered me to stay five days at 
home, writing on “Expert Friendship,” then to go to Atlantic 
City for December 19 and 20, and get back to Devens on Decem- 
ber 21. 

The only thing that worries me is that Herman Lum is 
coming on December 17 and John Dallas on December 18. We 
are to put Lum in 21 and Dallas in 22. Would you be willing 
to see that they are started off right? 

Pray much for me that I may have God’s guidance in each 
word written. Ill work night and day. I want to have the MS. 
written before you are called away South or overseas. 

God bless you. 

As ever, 
Henry 


The work on “Expert Friendship” which he mentioned in 
this letter was a book on Army Association service on which 
we had been working quietly, pooling our results when we came 
together. It was published in 1918 by the Association Press 
under the title, The Practice of Friendship. The subtitle 
was “Studies in Personal Evangelism with Men of the United 
States Army and Navy in American Training Camps.” 

The cold which he had contracted at camp persisted, and on 
the seventeenth of December he wrote: 


My right lung is still sore a little and it is very cold here— 
ten below. 

Kenneth Robbie ran down from Springfield to see me this 
afternoon. Everything is going splendidly. Bill Barnes is to 


The Army—Camp Devens 181 


be Acting Religious Work Secretary in my absence. I shall 
probably come up to Groton Inn for the first two or three days 
and run over during the day, going back to the Inn to sleep at 
night. 

Earle got “Expert Marksman” on the Camp Gordon rifle 
range. 

I have lots to talk over with you. I have written Sherwood 
Eddy and given him my view of the “Ethics of War.” I have 
not been strong enough to write much on the book, but will do 
so in the next two or three days. I have constantly jotted down 
ideas. I believe we have a real contribution to make to the 
brotherhood in it. 

I am trying hard to get Charlie Campbell to be Religious 
Work Director of the building which will serve Devens R.O.T.C., 
about 2,000 men, I suppose. We must do a piece of service 
there in January, February, and March which will be just lke 
the first Plattsburg. I have not asked Charlie yet. He is at 
Northfield at the Student Volunteer Conference. Pray much 
that we may get him, if it be God’s will. We shall turn over 
one whole Y. M. C. A. building at Devens *o the Officers’ School. 
You and I must work together on the officers’ problem there. 

Josephine sends love. 

Affectionately, 
HENRY 


Often when confined to his bed, he did a prodigious amount 
of reading and writing. Sometimes he felt that illness was a 
blessing in that it gave him long periods for uninterrupted 
work. During this period he worked constantly on ‘The 
Practice of Friendship.” 

He wrote after a week in bed: 


I’ve finished two chapters. The magnum opus is the one on 
“Christianity and War.” ve worked hard on it but it will need 
much revision. I’ve added a little to your chapter on the half- 
gospel. All your chapters in the second half of the book are 
typewritten and finished today. T’ve combined some of the chap- 
ters in the first part and changed titles: 


182 Life of Henry B. Wright 


PARTI. PERSONAL EVANGELISM THROUGH EXPERT 
FRIENDSHIP: GUIDING PRINCIPLES 


I. Personal Evangelism—a Definition. 
II. The Nature of the Evangel for the Army and Navy (as 
before). 
III. Characteristics of the Men to Whom We Are to Minister. 
IV. What is a Point of Contact? 
V. How to Begin and of What to Beware. 
VI. Expert Friendship the Key to Method in Personal Evan- 
gelism. 3 


VII. The Goal of Expert Friendship and its Rewards. 
As Christmas Day approached, he dispatched another note: 


My dear George: 

Merry Christmas to you and all the other boys in quarantine. 
I shall spend the day in bed with a good sore throat and some 
cold on the lungs, but both are better. I doubt if I get up to 
camp again much before New Year’s. Ill keep pegging away on 
the book as I have strength and will have it all finished for final 
revision by the time you get out of quarantine. I have my ideas 
pretty well thought out. Wilder is anxious to have it at the 
earliest possible moment. 

Lots of love, 
HEnry 


This was quickly followed by a third letter: 


Sick in bed—bad throat and cough on lungs. I started off 
too soon to Atlantic City, but we had a wonderful conference 
there. I read Chapters I and II of “The Practice of Friend- 
ship” to the Camp Executives and Religious Work Secretaries 
of twelve states. They all wanted it at once. 

Came back to Devens Saturday, but kept getting worse, so 
started for New Haven at 2 p.m. No heat on trains and all cars 
turned into smokers for soldiers. It was great to get into bed— 
the first Christmas of my life there. 

But I am supremely happy. Had a fine talk with Walter on 


The Army—Camp Devens 183 


Immortal Life. He accepts it all, dear fellow. He is pitiably 
weak. Jo has two invalids in bed now. 

Had wonderful experience with a soldier and a sailor coming 
up from Atlantic City. I believe we saved them both. In fact, 
I know with God’s help we did. 

Wilder reported that 42,000 “Beloved Captain” had been 
published and 129,000 “Soldier’s Spirit.”” Dear old pal, how 
pregnant with meaning all the days at Plattsburg were and how 
grateful I am that we grasped it. 

My greatest joy is this—that things run better religiously 
at Devens when I am away than when I am there. All those 
boys have caught the spirit so wonderfully. Miracles of healing 
with Catholic boys are happening. The dedication of the fire- 
side at No. 29 was the most beautiful that I ever heard. Major 
Darwin did it. 

Did it ever occur to you that Christmas, which is such a 
happy day for us, was the day of Jesus’ breaking from home 
above and enlisting for foreign service? It meant separation 
and battle with sin for Him when He left heaven to camp down 
here. 

Lots of love, 
Henry 


The “Walter” he mentions was Dr. Walter Hayward, his 
brother-in-law, at that time desperately ill at 20 Livingston 
Street. The staff at Devens were very anxious lest Henry’s 
illness should develop into pneumonia. Confined to his bed, 
his thoughts were with the troops at Devens. His lion heart 
and his cheerfulness in those days which tried men’s souls put 
courage into all of his associates. ‘Two days after Christmas 
he wrote that he was mending: 


My dear old chum: 

I am sitting up in bed for the first time in five days and the 
devil is gone out of me. All I need now is to get back my 
strength and I shall be with you again. For the first few days 
the trouble was lack of physical strength. I got the sore throat 
and cough in hand the third day, but then the poison seemed 
to go into my whole system and drug me. I simply wanted to lie 


184 Life of Henry B. Wright 


and sleep. Today I feel ready to lick the Kaiser, with an appe- 
tite big enough to eat the bedclothes. I doubt if I get to you 
much before Monday, however. I shall sit up in a rocker this 
p-m. and dress tomorrow, getting outdoors about Saturday. I 
am glad I have been inoculated so safely, for I look for no 
further trouble this year. Before I got this, I felt lke facing 
machine gun fire every time some big Polish draft army soldier 
from Maine let off a barrage sneeze with 10,000 pneumonia 
germs in it, for I knew that if one of them hit me in the lung it 
might end me. 
Walter is very ill. 
Lots of love, 
HEnry 


He looked forward with keen interest to the Third Officers’ 
Training School, which began on January 1, 1918, feeling that 
the secret of life in the army was largely in the hands of the 
officers. On January 3, 1918, he wrote: 


My dear old boy: 

I got hold of a copy of the Herald here in New Haven this 
morning and found in it the names of the men chosen for the 
Officers’ School. It will be a great school and I look for a wonder- 
ful set of officers with Joe McCarthy and Steve Thach and 
Harold Winship among them. 

I shall come to Ayer Friday for the conference of new men 
on Saturday at Groton. I’m not quite well so Dll sleep at 
Groton till Monday, when I go back to New Haven again to 
lecture. 

V’ve got quite a side-winder on Christianity and War to read 
to you when we get together again. I am to meet Brewer Eddy 
and his cohorts in Boston and read it to them. He hopes to 
have Sherwood with him. 

This has been a long separation from work, but I anticipated 
illness when I undertook the job. I shall be grateful to God for 
every day he lets me work at Devens in this hard time of the 
year for me. 

Faithfully, 
HEnryY 


The Army—Camp Devens 185 


The Officers’ School proved to be the scene of a remarkable 
spiritual work by Professor Wright. A bitter New England 
winter had settled down over camp; men were drilling in 
weather thirty degrees below zero. The candidates in the 
Officers’ School were going through a course of field training 
regardless of weather and were studying two hours each night. 
They had thirty miutes each day for their private affairs 
and recreation. Some unfortunate chap contracted a case of 
the measles and the whole school was quarantined! Capt. 
Robert C. Booth, Yale ’16, was “skipper” of the Second Com- 
pany, in which I was located, and gladly gave permission for 
Professor Wright to give a course of lectures on Sunday after- 
noons. ‘The mess hall each time was packed to the last seat, 
about one hundred and fifty men. We usually sang two hymns 
at the beginning and then he would speak for an hour. The 
following topics were considered in a period of about two 
months: 


1. Belief in the Cause. 
2. Confidence in the Method. 
3. Faith in the Men to be Led. 
4, Principles Underlying Control of Social Groups. 
5. The Secret of Esprit de Corps. 
6. Limitations in Personal Relationships between Officers and 
Men Imposed by the Necessity of Reserve. 
7. Dangers in Devotion to a Person Rather Than to a Cause. 
8. The Greater Value of Indirect Suggestion. 
9. The Power of Example. 
10. Opportunities for Direct Self-revelation. 
11. Work with Individuals—Through Formal Discipline. 
12. Work with Individuals—Through Informal Counsel. 


A profound hush would fall over the mess hall while this 
scholarly gentleman enriched the lives of his listeners with 
historical allusions and literary anecdotes. He drew analogies 
with the past, he interpreted for us our own lives, our army 
experience, our place in the world in which he lived; he led 


186 Life of Henry B. Wright 


us to see the value of a prior allegiance to God. For sheer 
spiritual beauty and persuasiveness the addresses were master- 
pieces. Everything he said was centered about Christ, the 
splendor of His undying purpose, His character, His way of 
overcoming evil, His leadership. When he ceased speaking, 
after a short word of prayer, the men would throng about him 
for a few minutes and then he would set out through the cold to 
another barracks, speaking three and four times during the 
course of a Sunday afternoon and evening. 

In the course of his duties he made arrangements for fif- 
teen or twenty outside speakers each week and no little effort 
was necessary to keep the staff recruited up to efficient work- 
ing capacity. For this purpose he was called upon to send 
numerous telegrams. On one occasion when he was ill in New 
Haven, a friend dispatched a telegram of sympathy to him 
through the office at camp headquarters. The non-commis- 
sioned officer who received the message on the telephone, after 
a courteous apology, asked after the Professor’s health. “I 
have never seen him,” he said, ‘‘but I have often heard his voice 
over the wire and have sent his telegrams and I would like to 
meet him face to face.” 

His room at the headquarters building during these months 
was the rendezvous of various groups. Several men from the 
Officers’ School would gather there on Sunday evenings. On 
February 7, Professor Wright posted a note saying: 


I shall not be at the building on Sunday evening, so that we 
cannot have our little upper-room conference. But I hope you 
will bring the fellows up just the same and use the room with 
them. I have a writing desk in it now. 


Writing materials were always at hand, and a number of 
books on war poetry, devotional literature, and volumes which 
went into the background of the conflict. Not infrequently he 
would have some food for his perpetually hungry soldier 
friends. This rendezvous became a sanctuary to scores of pri- 
vates, non-commissioned officers, and officers of higher rank. 


The Army—Camp Devens 187 


In it no grades were recognized. Majors and captains knelt 
with privates in this tiny room, before a Commander who 
knows and loves all alike. 

In March, 1918, two heavy sorrows descended in quick 
succession upon the Wright household. The death of Dr. 
Walter Hayward, the brother of Mrs. Wright, was followed 
in one week by the passing of Professor Wright’s father. Dr. 
Hayward had poured out his life in unstinted service, a physi- 
cian who lived by the finest traditions of his profession, re- 
sponsive to every human need, ministering to sick bodies until, 
broken by too long hours on storm-swept roads, he awaited his 
summons. Having saved others, himself he could not save. 

While Professor Wright was in Taunton awaiting the 
funeral of Dr. Hayward, his thoughts turned toward the close 
of the Officers’ School and the separation it would bring be- 
tween himself and the many boys who had come to know him 
through his series of talks. He wrote: 


Well, old pal, a new chapter in the romance of life is opening 
up for both of us. We are closing a wonderful one together— 
the happiest of my life. We shall be just as close together in 
spirit in the next one, though an ocean may separate us. “For 
I am persuaded that neither life nor death . . . nor things pres- 
ent nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love 
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 


Professor Wright posted a note written on March 15: 


On the eve of Walter’s funeral I got a long-distance from 
New Haven stating that Father was seriously ill and the doctor 
advised my coming at once. Father is a very sick man. I have 
written Hoffmire and Hearne and shall stay here till the crisis is 
past. 

I am so sorry that I cannot be with you for the last Sunday 
at Devens. I had anticipated it so keenly. Put all your things 
together on my bed. 

I should have liked to have a farewell prayer with you in some 
spot at Devens, like our prayer in the middle of the parade 


188 Life of Henry B. Wright 


ground at Plattsburg. But it will not be necessary, for No. 29, 
No. 238, No. 27, and our room at headquarters are hallowed 
already. 

I shall try to finish the book when I am off duty from Father’s 
bedside here, and I should think of many things between 12 and 
4 a.m. each morning when I am on. 


Another letter arrived the following day, March 16: 


We divided the bedside watching into watches, and I was on 
from midnight till 6 a.m. It was really the first long stretch 
I have had for meditation and prayer since Plattsburg began. 
It was a blessed, quiet time. What a lot we have to be grateful 
to God for in these great days! 

The last thing Father sent me was a biography of “Uncle 
John Vassar,” a lay army worker in the Civil War. He was a 
missionary of the American Tract Society. It is one of the best 
lives of a personal evangelist I ever read. He did exactly as the 
Y.M.CA. is doing. Father wanted to have you read it—he 
thought you and Uncle John had much in common. [ll get it to 
you sometime. 

No letter from Earle in over five weeks. I suspect he has 
gone over. 


Two days later came the news that Dean Wright was dead. 


Your message brought joy and peace and comfort to us all. 
Father rallied for a whole day after I came. He was conscious 
and did quite a little business with me. Dr. Foote even thought 
that he might come out of the crisis as he did last year. But 
Sunday at 3 p.m. he suddenly changed and sank into a sleep from 
which he never awakened. He was perfectly peaceful and simply 
slept away. We had a trained nurse come at 5 p.m., and at 
7.45 his breathing ceased. Mother and I and the nurse had 
prayer together at the bedside, and then I went downstairs and 
had prayer with Alice and Jo. We have had beautiful hours 
together ever since. 

We have postponed the funeral services one day: that at Yale 
at 12.30 in Battell Chapel on Wednesday, that at Oakham in 


The Army—Camp Devens 189 


the Congregational Church at 11.00 a.m. on Thursday. I en- 
close clippings from the Courier and the Yale News. 
My love to you, old pal. 
As ever, 
Henry 


On April 11 Professor Wright wrote to Kenneth Latourette 
about the Dean’s going: 


Father’s going has been a beautiful and sacred experience 
for us all. I come back to Devens strengthened by it to do a 
bigger work for Christ. I do not know of any one who had a 
happier old age than he. He had finished a book on teaching, 
and the history of Oakham was so well along that I can complete 
it when the war ends. His last act was a gift of $500 to the 
Yale Alumni Fund. I held him up while he signed his name to 
the check. I know of nothing in my relation to him, in his to me, 
or in his to Christ, which I would have had different. 


The last act of the venerable Dean, giving $500 to the 
Alumni Fund of Yale, made a tremendous impression on the 
graduates, who at that time were making heroic efforts to face 
a quarter of a million dollars’ deficit because of losses to the 
University due to the war. 

The New Haven Journal Courter remarked editorially 
upon the Dean’s passing: 


Literally thousands of Yale men throughout the land will 
hear of the passing of Dean Henry Parks Wright with a deep 
sense of personal loss. . . . Many will recall instances of his 
helpfulness at times when the inculcation of knowledge or the 
ordinary modes of discipline were of far less importance than 
the word of encouragement or of gentle reprobation which it was 
the habit of this kindly man to offer. Unconsciously he found 
the most direct way into the affections of those who came in 
contact with him under conditions which in themselves were often 
forbidding. So marked were these human traits in the man who 
now lives on in memory that the years tended to deepen those 
first impressions which sprang up around the stern summons of 


190 Life of Henry B. Wright 


the student delinquents for whom we suspect the Dean more often 
than not felt a particularly warm affection. 

His life was long and full. In the memory of what he was 
and of what he did for one generation of Yale men after another, 
the common grief over his going is softened. 


On February 27, 1918, less than a month before the Dean 
died, he had written a beautiful letter, some parts of which 
reveal the quality of his mind and heart: 


As you directed the family letter to me, I will take the re- 
sponsibility of sending you a note in reply. 

The winter has been for us not only cold and unsatisfactory, 
but also somewhat lonely and anxious with all of you away, with 
20 Livingston Street closed, and Walter seriously ill. Last 
year you were all here, from Josephine down to Earle, and we 
saw some of you almost every day. 

It is not necessary to say that we are deeply interested in 
you and in your plans. I am glad you are in training for a 
commission, because I think your influence for good will be much 
greater if you are an officer than if you are only a private soldier. 
There is before you a great work for men. If you should live 
to be a hundred years old, you will never again have such an 
opportunity to serve and to save others, and you will need 
always the help of an ever-present Saviour. 

Compared with other blessings, the only thing worth having 
in this world is the Christian religion. It is that which gives the 
value to all else that we enjoy and prize, and the men who can 
by their influence lead others to see the joy of a life with Christ 
are most highly endowed by divine inspiration. 

One of my favorite Bible passages is the promise of Christ: 
“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye 
receive them, and ye shall have them.” Our country has entered 
upon a vast undertaking, but the Unseen Hand that brought us 
through the Revolution and through the Civil War, that enabled 
us to establish a government by the people and to preserve it, 
will bless us in our sacrifices that we may help to give to the 
world a righteous peace—a peace that will never be broken, a 
peace in which all the nations of the world shall share. I believe 


The Army—Camp Devens 191 


that such a peace will be followed by the turning of the world to 
the Christian religion. 

It is a great comfort to see Henry once a week when he comes 
to New Haven for his lectures in the School of Religion. I re- 
joice with you in the work he is doing with the young men in 
camp, and am glad that he has you for an associate and helper. 
You are fortunate in having his influence, and he is fortunate 
in having your help. In the world above you will both have 
great joy in recalling the good work you are now doing. 


For the week following Dean Wright’s death, Professor 
Wright remained in New Haven straightening out affairs for 
his mother. 

These March days of 1918 were fraught with destiny for 
the Allies. The British Fifth Army had suffered unprece- 
dented casualties in Picardy. The last great German offensive 
was in full swing and Berlin awaited expectantly the success 
of German arms in taking Amiens. Professor Wright re- 
marked on March 23: 


These are crucial hours in the life of the world. An extra 
just out says the British line has broken west of San Quentin. 
But reverse is the Englishman’s time to shine. It looks like a 
long war ahead and we shall all make sacrifices to which the 
present are as nothing. Thank God for the chance. On ne 
passe pas! 


After four days, when the rush of fresh divisions had ceased 
and the German drive had slowed up, he wrote to William 
Barnes: 


It looks as if the Hun attack had worn itself out. God be 
praised!! The defense of the British and French has been won- 
derful. How happy we all are that America was in it. I 
have prayed much at all hours during the last six days that God 
would stay the mad rush of the demons by putting iron into the 
hearts and wills of our boys. 


192 Life of Henry B. Wright 


None in the little family was overlooked on special occa- 
sions, even during the war. On Good Friday he sent the 
following note: 


My dear boy: 

Today is Good Friday, tomorrow is Lexington Day, and 
Sunday is Easter. Under the inspiration of these great experi- 
ences which the Past felt and which we still feel, my thoughts turn 
back to home and loved ones in gratitude for the land we live in, 
the God we love, and the future to which we look forward. May 
Christ be with you on His resurrection day, and may next year 
open up a new chapter in the Romance of Life. 


With love, 


Henry 


In the late summer and fall of 1918 the terrible influenza 
epidemic engulfed Camp Devens. 'T'en thousand men were ill 
at one time. The hospital was overwhelmed, and dozens of 
barracks were turned over to the medical forces. Cots were 
placed end to end in the corridors. ‘The camp presented a 
strange spectacle. Dispatch runners, stretcher bearers, doc- 
tors, nurses, and all who were in contact with the sick went 
about with huge protectors of gauze bandage over mouth and 
nose to guard against the lethal malady. Hundreds of men 
were stricken in a fortnight. Soldiers apparently in good 
condition would faint at reveille or retreat and pass away in 
twenty-four hours. Professor Wright was ill in New Haven 
when the full force of the disease attacked the camp. Arthur 
Hoffmire, the Camp Secretary, cautioned the entire staff not 
to mention the seriousness of the disease in any letter to Henry 
Wright, as he would return regardless of his condition. But 
he learned through the newspapers of the ravages which the 
disease was making, and rallying his strength he returned to 
his comrades, plunging into the midst of work for the afflicted. 
No medieval monk took more delight in danger for Christ’s 
sake than did he. He was constantly at bedsides, writing let- 
ters, reading, praying with dying men, and comforting mothers 


The Army—Camp Devens 193 


and fathers. That he did not contract the dread disease seems 
almost a miracle, as any sort of respiratory disorder was espe- 
cially hazardous for him after his illness in 1912. Living in 
scorn of consequences, the reenforcements of the spirit were 
his. Later he confided that he had a fierce joy in going into 
the worst situations; he could not have done otherwise. He 
wrote to a friend: 


We have had some wonderful conversions as a result of this 
time of stress, when Christ alone was adequate. I had read 
Thucydides’ “‘Coming of the Plague at Athens,” but I had never 
been in one to really experience it. The Y helped save the day, 
unquestionably. Bull Barnes worked in the hospital. His services 
will never be forgotten. 


At the request of the chaplains, thirty-three of the secre- 
taries worked night and day in the hospitals. ‘‘We had a 
wonderful conversion here last Wednesday of a boy deep in 
sin,” he wrote to Robert E. Speer. ‘‘God has been real to us 
in this terrible epidemic.” 

One of Professor Wright’s sources of power over men was 
that he never lost touch with them even in times of great 
pressure and stress. He constantly kept in communication 
with dozens of old students, showing his thoughtfulness in all 
sorts of ways. Often he sent tiny notes to cheer one with a 
flash of humor or gentleness or a passage glowing with spiritual 
radiance. In writing these letters he was helping God to 
answer prayer, as he used to put it. In September, 1918, he 
wrote: 


I sent copies of Toplady’s “Soul of the Soldier” and Eddy’s 
“Right to Fight” to you at Fifteenth Co. C.O.T.S. Camp Lee. 
I have word from New York that they went. Did they reach 
you O.K.? 

It surely is splendid that Anne has been able to render such 
fine service at Haskell. It will mean much to her all the rest of 
her life. 


194 Life of Henry B. Wright 


I am Camp General Secretary now for two weeks. Hoffmire 
and Stephenson are taking a trip by auto to the camps in the 
East—Mills, Upton, Mineola, Dix, Lakewood, Meade, and Lee. 
They ought to reach you about Wednesday. They will look you 
up. 

The Twelfth Division is just about to move. Raymond 
Thrasher, an Oakham boy, has been drafted and will probably 
be sent to Camp Lee or Camp Sevier. All the 22,000 Massachu- 
setts men go there this month. 

Dick Gurley got appointed to the American Embassy in 
London and then his draft board wouldn’t let him leave the 
country. 

We have had 348 different men connected with the Devens 
staff since you and I opened Hut 29. What a wonderful privilege 
to know and work with all these fine men! 

The $170,000,000 drive will go over the top easily, from all 
indications. Have you seen Bliss Carman’s “Men of the Great 
Triune” in the Saturday Evening Post? It is a corker. 


He kept in touch with many in other lands during the 
war, as he did at Yale. On October 4, 1918, he wrote to James 
Williams at Yale in China: 


Do not get restless in China. The big historical events will 
take place in the East after this War is over, and you are build- 
ing for eternity there. We all know that your work is equally 
important with that of the War work. 


The careers of scores of men in the Army who had been with 
him in groups at Yale were followed eagerly, and he would 
often refer to a decoration or a casualty. 

Professor Wright remained with the work at Camp Devens 
until June, 1919. Until the very end he never lost his passion 
for the service to which he had given his loyalty. He kept 
his labor of love on the same plane of heroic effort as men who 
enlisted and risked their all. As the end of the work for him 
drew near, he wrote to Arthur Hoffmire, with whom he had 
formed a strong bond of friendship: 


The Army—Camp Devens 195 


My dear Hoff: 

I suppose by this time you have matters all settled about 
Devens on a peace basis, and the staff is beginning to be as- 
sembled. I have found lots to do here with Mother’s business 
problems and family arrangements for next year. I also dis- 
covered, as you no doubt did yourself, that I was pretty tired. 
I haven’t been able to rest in bed much yet. 

It has been one of the happiest experiences of my life to 
work with you, old man, and I rejoice that we are still to continue 
the relationship in our new jobs. 

With love, 
Henry 


He created within his associates the likeness of his own 
faith. The realization of the heartache which he would suffer 
if they failed kept men at their labors. On May 20, 1919, he 
wrote a second note to Hoffmire, expressing what the fellow- 
ship had meant to him: 


My dear Art: 

On my return to New Haven from Camp Upton on Friday 
I found your kind message of May 12. It brought me great joy 
and I thank you for it. I shall treasure among the most precious 
moments of my life those of the months we have been together. 
I know of no one to whom I would have entrusted the execution 
of the ideals I have cherished for army work more confidently 
than to you. You have always appreciated the higher values in 
our work and have made the ideals real as I could not. It’s 
one thing to think a plan out in the study; it is another and 
harder thing to make it walk on four legs in actual life. This 
latter thing you did. 

I had a hard but wonderfully profitable week at Hoboken 
and Upton and got hold of all the facts I wanted about Earle. 
I am to give the address in his memory at Oakham on Memorial 
Day next week. 

The morale officer for the R.O.T.C. was here today—Cap- 
tain Fairfax. He is a corker. He moves in June 1. Chaplain 
Merchant has been made a Captain. 

Don’t forget to send me one of your photographs in uniform. 


196 Life of Henry B. Wright 


And let me know the next time you come to New Haven after 
June 1. Buck Dyer is to be with me between June 5 and 10. We 
have plenty of rooms. 
Reporter Folsom told me today that Pershing will have all 
American troops out of Germany by July 1. 
With affectionate regards, as ever, 
Henry 


A week later he wrote to Edward W. Hearne, chief of the 
Association Work for Northern New England: 


Thank you for your kind and gracious note of May 23. As 
I shall tell the boys tomorrow, these two years in the Army War 
Work have been the most precious and profitable of my whole 
life. They have been made possible by your absolute sympathy 
with, and constant advocacy of, the side of our work which is 
nearest my own heart—the religious. How you have managed 
to keep the troubled seas of Boston quiet with its fifty-seven 
varieties of bizarre religion, I do not know, but you have done it, 
so that it has been possible for us to put over a simple, evan- 
gelical message here to 150,000 men. I have never ceased to be 
grateful that you were at the helm, and that I had the privilege 
of working under your wise direction. What has worked in 
Devens will work in New England, and in that task we are still 
associated. 


The War was now entering its old age. As in every great 
effort, there had been many mistakes. The Versailles Con- 
ference was unable to bring the peace which soldiers had 
struggled to attain. A spirit of frustration and criticism was 
abroad; no one was willing to accept blame for past errors; 
every one was eager to condemn some one else. Cessation of 
hostilities brought intellectual and moral slackness; grudges 
which had been laid aside in the strife now emerged in aug- 
mented form. Public men grew cynical, hosts of plain people 
were puzzled and disillusioned, religious leaders took a black 
view of affairs because patriotism and war did not bring about 
the Kingdom. They were reaping the results of the half- 


The Army—Camp Devens 197 


gospel against which Henry Wright had fought so hard. But 
his faith never slackened, nor did his love for men lessen. 
Wherever sacrificial love was poured out in friendship for men 
he believed redemption and regeneration would inevitably fol- 
low. During this time of spiritual depression he wrote to 


Robert E. Speer: 


My dear Bob: 

It was very thoughtful of you to send me the copy of the 
Sunday School Times with the reference to Devens. I thank 
you for it. We still continue to have rich experiences with God’s 
grace here. The overseas men are wonderfully gentle and tender 
and impressionable. And our friend Judge Ben Lindsay is en- 
tirely mistaken about the doughboy’s religion. 

The returning overseas man is going to be just what we make 
him. He is responsive, hungry for guidance religiously, and 
morally and spiritually teachable. Far from dictating, he seems 
to me to want to be “fitted in,” and looks to us for leadership just 
as he did to his captain and lieutenants. I fail to detect the 
slightest trace of any army of intellectual radicals bent on over- 
throwing the bulwarks of theology, systematic, dogmatic, or 
Biblical. 

And as to the ethical radical, who is going to do away with 
puritanism and blue laws, he is beaten at the start and knows it. 
He is invariably in deep moral trouble himself and wants to get 
out by the straight and narrow path when you finally. probe his 
secret. 

The Church of the Living God has the opportunity of the 
ages. 

Affectionately, 
Henry 


His cooperative spirit won for him the loyalty of those at 
Eastern Headquarters at Boston and at New York. Unlike 
so many spiritual geniuses, he was not an individualist. He 
had his dream of the will of God for the army work and he set 
out to find it, but in so doing he was always the loving, courte- 
ous companion who beautified the commonplace tasks and 


198 Life of Henry B. Wright 


never forgot that other men also had dreams and hopes. The 
work of the Association in the War was very near his heart. 
He gloried in the opportunity and prayed and gave his 
strength and means that it might be adequate for the task 
and for the new day when the guns would cease firing. Ina 
note he mentioned some facts about the work in France: ‘The 
Y.M.C.A. record on the front line is: 11 killed by shell or 
gas; 39 died from accident or disease; 3 died from wounds; 
67 wounded by shell or gas; total casualty list, 120. Three 
received the distinguished service cross.” By the close of 
hostilities the casualty list had increased to 286 and the list 
of decorations to 319, including 41 Croix de Guerre, 25 Of- 
ficier de l’Académie, and 6 Legion d’Honeur. Robert P. 
Wilder said of Henry Wright: 


He was the first religious work director we chose for any 
camp. ‘There was something so contagious about Henry that 
all Christians in that camp seemed to get his eagerness to win 
men one by one to Jesus Christ. He was always on the lookout 
for aids. When I printed with fear and trembling an edition of 
ten thousand Daily Readings in the New Testament, I sent a 
copy to Henry and he immediately took one-half of the edition, 
with the result that very soon another edition of twenty thousand 
was published, and before the War closed nearly one million copies 
of the Daily Readings had been circulated among our soldiers. 


Fred Weber, one of his Camp Devens associates, wrote to 
Arthur Hoffmire from Muzaffarpur, Behar, India: 


Perhaps neither of us shall see his like on the same fashion 
on this earth again. I am sure he has made us both better for our 
contacts with him. What a spiritual contribution his life was 
to the whole of Camp Devens. 


The Army chapters of his life were replete with sacrifice, 
lived in a high mood. All parts of the camp were sacred to 
him. In his little room at headquarters he reestablished weary 
souls, pacified cranks and fanatics with pet programs, coun- 


The Army—Camp Devens 199 


seled with his colleagues, and sought God’s favor. At Devens, 
as elsewhere, he helped many a man into the divine presence in 
his soul’s extremity. Every green Y building became a sanc- 
tuary, the doing of routine tasks a sacrament. I can see him 
now walking in the twilight along snowy roads to meet some 
group in a distant regiment. He poured out his soul for 
men, he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the 


transgressors, and he shall see the travail of his soul and shall 
be satisfied. 


CHAPTER XI 
THE DIVINITY SCHOOL PROFESSORSHIP 


“Then,” said he, “I am going to my Father’s, and though with 
great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all 
the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I 
give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage and my cour- 
age and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry 
with me to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles who 
will now be my rewarder.” So he passed over and all the trum- 
pets sounded on the other side. 

—VALIANT-FOR-THE-TRUTH. 


HE pestilence that walketh in darkness had laid a heavy 
(ih hand upon the Wright household in March of 1912. 
Man and wife walked hand in hand into the Valley of 

the Shadow. After the first acute illness due to pleurisy of 
tubercular origin, Professor Wright lay many weeks husband- 
ing strength in the contest with his malady. The same will 
that urged him to ceaseless activity in health became his strong 
ally in sickness. He learned the secrets of patience and seren- 
ity. He willed to be still in body, mind, and spirit. <A verse 
which gave him confidence in these days was “In quietness and 
in confidence shall be your strength.” The patience which he 
manifested in illness caused many anxious men in later years 
to seek his counsel, to find the secret of living triumphantly 
in a broken body. In early May the Wrights went to Bethle- 
hem, Connecticut. Fever persisted for months, but by the 
middle of September Professor Wright had noticeably mended 
and was allowed to write a few notes. At this time he sent 
a letter to Kenneth Latourette, who had just been invalided 
home to Oregon City from the Yale Mission at Changsha, 


China: 
200 


The Divinity School Professorship 201 
Dear Ken: 


Your letter was a real joy and I am so glad that you are 
going to have a good long rest at home. I have been told that 
I cannot go back to Yale this fall. Whether that means in 
January, I do not know. I haven’t asked the Doctor, for like 
you I am willing to go or stay, whichever is best. You have the 
advantage over me of being with the home folks, but I have Jo 
and home is wherever she is. 

I am allowed to walk one-half to three-quarters of an hour on 
level ground now, but I rarely do it all. I am not strong enough, 
and I have been directed to always stop this side of “tired.” It 
is a great privilege to be allowed to write or read a letter now. 
I wasn’t allowed to read, write, or even think very much till 
September 1. 

I am reconciled to giving up my Bible classes at Yale now that 
Dean Charles R. Brown is with us. Biff Wheeler makes an ideal 
secretary. 

I have just finished Washington Irving’s ‘“‘Life of Christopher 
Columbus” and am reading a little ancient history in German each 
day. I am to be allowed to ride in a carriage or automobile 
this next week for one-half hour. 

This illness has been a great experience to me, Ken; it has 
made me appreciate Christ’s ministry of healing much better. I 
shall be so much better able to understand those that are ill and 
are suffering, hereafter. God has been very good to us this year. 
I feel perfectly sure that the work at Changsha and at Yale will 
go forward splendidly and am content to hide away for a season. 
It is a great joy to be again among the simple, great-hearted 
people from whom Christ chose his Twelve and I am learning 
many lessons from the people in this little town. 

Affectionately, 
HENRY 


His strength had so returned by the end of November that 
he was able to spend Thanksgiving Day with his father and 
mother in New Haven. 

In January Professor and Mrs. Wright moved from Beth- 
lehem to Cherry Hill, Connecticut, where he could have the 


202 Life of Henry B. Wright 


clear air and at the same time be within commuting distance of 
the University. During the second semester three hours of 
teaching per week were resumed. All study was carried on in 
the open air, no matter what the temperature. He devised a 
box with rounded transparent celluloid top to cover his hand 
and writing materials. In this he could take notes from his 
reading without cold or wind interfering. ‘This ingenious 
arrangement was copied by others who were forced to study 
in the open air. 

The summer of 1913 was spent at Oakham quietly resting. 
Teaching was resumed in the fall. The old passion for work 
came surging up again and on December 4 his good friend and 
physician, Dr. David R. Lyman, received a letter, asking for 
permission to spend the Christmas vacation in the West rais- 
ing funds for the Divinity School, an idea which the doctor 
negatived with considerable force. In February Professor 
Wright reported to him: 


The other man you sent out West at Christmas time in my 
place came back with funds for the new chair. I have decided 
always to obey the doctor in the future. I weigh two hundred 
pounds and work out doors most of the time. I can do more 
work without fatigue than ever before in my life. 


Professor E. Hershey Sneath was the man who had gone 
West. He had obtained from Mrs. S. M. Clement of Buffalo 
the endowment for the Stephen Merrell Clement Chair of Chris- 
tian Methods, in honor of her husband. ‘To this chair Pro- 
fessor Wright was elected. He had been associated with Mer- 
rell Clement, ’10, who for one year was a secretary in the 
Yale Y.M.C.A., as well as with his brother, Stewart Clement, 
"17, who had served on the Yale College Y.M.C.A. Cabinet 
in his Junior and Senior years. Occupancy of the new Clement 
chair was even more congenial to him because of these associa- 
tions, and the years in which he held it were the most joyous 
and profitable of his career. 

He wrote to Latourette at this period: 


The Divinity School Professorship 203 


I have had two letters from you and have replied to neither. 
You now know the reason. I wanted to tell you all about the 
new professorship which Merrell Clement’s family gave and my 
election to it. It was voted yesterday by the Corporation, and 
I am very, very happy. I can now give all my time to Christ 
with a clear conscience. And just think what a group we shall 
have here next year, Ken! . .. and Dean Charles R. Brown to 
inspire us all. . . . We have wonderful plans for the work in 
the Yale School of Religion and Christian Service. I shall send 
you all printed matter as it appears. Remember us in prayer 
that we may do God’s complete will in this as in all else. 


Professor Wright emerged from his illness never so strong 
as he otherwise would have been, but still a man of great vigor, 
to enter the second phase of his teaching career. From 1912 
on there was a new note of urgency in his labors. He had been 
spared, spared to redemptive service and he knew it. The 
interpretation of pain and of waiting which he derived from 
his illness was even deeper than he had possessed before. From 
now on he exemplified a dictum of Alexander Whyte of Edin- 
burgh: “Be careful of your health, but careless of your life.” 
When some friend urged a slower pace, he would say: “Much 
of a man’s best work is done when he is tired.” 

Upon entering the Divinity School all but one of his old 
courses had to be abandoned and a new group constructed. 
He was the first to occupy his chair and he set to work to form 
his new lectures out of the raw materials of his religious experi- 
ence. With the new chair came heavy responsibilities which 
caused his doctor a year later to caution him: “I am torn with 
conflicting emotions—an admiration for the work you have 
mapped out and fear lest you overdo.” In order to get a 
vision of the whole of the work at the Divinity School, he 
studied constantly in fields of his colleagues. He informed 
himself in theology and philosophy, in Old and New ‘l'esta- 
ment history and literature, and was going deeper into the 
psychology of religion when his work was cut short. 

In connection with Professors E. Hershey Sneath and 


204. Life of Henry B. Wright 


Douglas C. Macintosh, he conducted a course entitled ‘The 
Psychology, Message and Methods of Public Evangelism,” 
which was a psychological and historical study including 
Edwards, Whitefield, Wesley, Finney, Bushnell, Moody, 
Drummond, and the leading contemporary figures in that field, 
with an attempt to formulate the message and define the 
methods of Christian evangelism in the twentieth century. A 
course which attracted numbers from both within and without 
the School was “The Principles of Personal Evangelism,” a 
systematic study of the aims and methods of personal evangel- 
ism followed by discussion of practical means for the conser- 
vation of results. This course was in reality a spiritual clinic 
into which he brought each week concrete cases embodying the 
problem discussed. 

With Professor William B. Bailey he conducted a course on 
“Rural Sociology,” a study of the industrial and social fac- 
tors of country life, with particular reference to the place of 
the rural church in a country community. This study went 
straight to the heart of the country town problem and was 
replete in illustration from experience in Oakham. 

Another course based upon practical experience was his 
“Leadership of Voluntary Bible-study Groups,” a seminar 
study applying the teachings of the Old and New Testaments 
and of the principles of Christian ethics to the moral and reli- 
gious life of boys and young men. Each student in the seminar 
was required to construct a Bible-study course of his own before 
the conclusion of the year as one of the prerequisites for a 
passing mark. 

In addition, there were three courses directly upon the 
Young Men’s Christian Association: one a historical study 
with an interpretation of its aims and peculiar functions in 
modern society, in which he was associated with Dr. John R. 
Mott; a second on Y.M.C.A. administration and organization ; 
a third on Y.M.C.A. relationships. 

Three more studies complete the list of courses which he 
taught in the Divinity School. “The Layman’s Relation to 


The Divinity School Professorship 205 


Christian Work” dealt with those agencies and relationships 
through which a layman can make his life most effective in the 
spiritual betterment of the community. “The Religious As- 
pects of University Teaching” was an effort to reach a solution 
of the perplexities which confront teacher and scholar in 
modern college and university life. The amount and nature of 
voluntary religious service which the Church and its lay agen- 
cies may in fairness demand of university teachers were care- 
fully considered. Finally, he conducted a study in ‘Religious 
Aspects of Student Problems.” One year in this course he 
directed an investigation to find the Christian solution to the 
college fraternity problem. This involved a careful study of 
the history of the fraternity movement from the beginning and 
its contemporary tendencies in the light of Christian ethics. 

In all his courses he encouraged his students to make use 
of the University library, a practice which he began in under- 
graduate days. He believed in absolute obedience to every rule, 
no matter what the justification for making personal excep- 
tions. Dr. Andrew Keogh, the librarian, said that he was a 
regular contributor to the library, as his father the Dean had 
been, and was always helpful in suggestions for the improve- 
ment of that all-important section of the life of the University. 

The course in Personal Evangelism which Professor Wright 
gave in the Divinity School was an amazing synthesis of prac- 
tical experience and scholarly method and it attracted many 
from without the city. Frank Buchman, who was teaching in 
the Hartford Theological Seminary, attended when possible 
and generally brought one or two students from that institu- 
tion with him. Frank Price, now in China, and Howard 
Walter, the writer of the famous verse beginning: 


“T would be true, for there are those who trust me,” 


also came down from Hartford. John L. Mott, son of John R. 
Mott, came up from New York. “It is such an inspiration to 
see John L. each week,” Professor Wright wrote to Mr. Mott 
in 1917. 


206 Life of Henry B. Wright 


One of his outstanding contributions to the Yale Divinity 
School and to the Y.M.C.A. movement was the establishment 
at Yale, largely through his influence, of a department for the 
training of secretaries in sound scholarship and practical ser- 
vice. 

In his own words this department was described as follows: 
“Tt prepares for the Young Men’s Christian Association sec- 
retaryship, requiring the same fundamental and thorough 
training in Old and New Testament, Church History, Re- 
ligious Psychology, and Theology as the pastoral course, sub- 
stituting technical training in Association History, Polity 
and Administration for Homiletics and Practical Theology, 
and in the place of free electives requiring a thorough mastery 
of the progressive science underlying the special type of work 
for which the future secretary is preparing. ‘Thus the In- 
dustrial Work Secretary must satisfy the Faculty as to his 
proficiency in Economics and Social Science; the Boys’ Work 
Secretary, in the Psychology of Adolescence; the Student 
Work Secretary, in the History and Principles of Education; 
the Educational Work Secretary, in Educational Adminis- 
tration.” 

At the National Student Secretaries’ Assembly at Estes 
Park in Colorado in the summer of 1923, the report of a Com- 
mission on Training of Student Secretaries, of which Professor 
Wright was a member, was considered and commended. This 
report described the objective of the student secretary and his 
major tasks. It then recommended that a bachelor’s degree, 
or its full cultural equivalent, be considered necessary for cer- 
tification as a student secretary, and that the ideal of a train- 
ing equivalent to that for the Christian ministry, with special 
reference to the spirit and method of the Association and to 
the needs of a college community, should be held before those 
planning to make Student Association work a life calling. 

Professor Wright held this ideal of advanced study for all 
Association secretaries. Emphasizing the fundamental prin- 
ciple of the Association, to lead men to Christ, he maintained 


The Divinity School Professorship 207 


that all Association secretaries should be primarily religious 
leaders. ‘They should be interpreters of Christian life, able 
to lead other men into full Christian experience. He felt that 
they needed the specialized equipment afforded by a graduate 
school, such equipment as a doctor, a lawyer, or a minister 
receives to prepare him for his profession. At Yale all 
students in the Y.M.C.A. course had the advantage of study- 
ing under Divinity School professors, as well as under leaders 
in both national and city Association work. The vigorous 
University Association as well as the New Haven City Associa- 
tion, with which Professor Wright was closely connected, gave 
opportunities for laboratory work in observation and in prac- 
tice. Under Professor Wright’s guidance and inspiration the 
department at Yale was, and still is, steadily growing, with 
students of sterling worth. 

The spiritual welfare of the undergraduate he continued 
to consider a special trust, although his teaching now lay 
almost altogether among graduate students. Yale athletics 
had always been a subject of interest to him and he knew 
scores of players personally. Nothing delighted him so much 
as to see a Yale team or crew that had passed through a 
season of humiliation win final events by sheer dash and cour- 
age. In 1914, the year that he became a member of the 
Divinity School Faculty, Yale’s record in football was clouded. 
The fall games were marked by intermittent displays of weak- 
ness. Coach followed coach in a vain effort to stem the tide 
of defeat. The season closed with the first game in the Yale 
Bowl] ending in an overwhelming defeat of 36-0 at the hands 
of Harvard. Football did not improve much in the earlier 
games in the following year. The Athletic Association took 
alarm and sent out a war telegram to Tom Shevlin, the pic- 
turesque and colorful captain of the 1905 team, a former 
All-American end. Shevlin found a confused and beaten team 
at New Haven. Im one week he resuscitated their fighting 
power to such an extent that they defeated Princeton 13-7, 
but on the followmg Saturday they were crushed under the 


208 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Harvard attack 41-0, the Crimson team being under the lead- 
ership of the famous Edward Mahan, captain, and Percy 
Haughton, coach. Shevlin on being asked in Boston why he 
could not inspire a beaten Yale team to win from Harvard 
as well as from Princeton, drily remarked, “You can make 
only one lemonade out of one lemon.” 

In the midst of the general depression over the situation 
Professor Wright quietly set a leaven of courage and deter- 
mination to work. A small group of students met in his 
office at 5 p.m. on Wednesdays for several months during the 
winters of 1914-1915 and 1915-1916. A strange mixture of 
literary and athletic lights and several men of no particular 
inclinations composed these gatherings. Alexander Wilson, 
football captain in the fall of 1915, later killed in action in 
the Great War, and other men well known on the campus were 
there. From a great mass of material Professor Wright worked 
out a history of Yale football. Character sketches of different 
players were packed full of incident calculated to reveal dan- 
gers and to inspire men to do their utmost. Kindness to fail- 
ures characterized these talks, but never hesitation in pointing 
out weakness. Natures with a dash of heroism in them were 
thrown into sharp relief. There were many thrilling yarns 
about men who had sacrificed themselves for the good of Yale. 
There was the story of the 1914 crew in which Captain Bayne 
Denégre removed himself from the boat and put in another 
man because he thought the substitute could pull a stronger 
oar, and the account of ‘**Doc” Cornish, ’14, who had played 
with a broken jaw through the last quarter of a hard game. 
Jim Hogan, 702, an ardent Roman Catholic boy, who cap- 
tained the Blue football team to victory, a good student and a 
man of moral intrepidity, was made a source of inspiration 
to the group, as he was constantly to Professor Wright. In 
these afternoon talks analogies were drawn between plays on 
the field and movements of various military commanders. 
Frank Hinkey’s lateral pass idea was compared to the shifting 
of fighting units by Frederick the Great! There was humor 


The Divinity School Professorship 209 


and pathos and heroism, with little direct preachment. It 
was leadership by suggestion. ‘The men would depart from 
the meetings, sometimes hardly speaking to one another, lov- 
ing the man, loving Yale, and determined to do better in their 
studies and on the field. Although he realized that it was im- 
possible for one man to reconstruct the life of Yale, he never 
lost the vision of what one consecrated man could do in gener- 
ating moral earnestness upon the campus. 

The theme of this group and of several others of its kind 
which he conducted in different years he called “Unwritten 
Yale Annals,” the outgrowth of an article which he wrote for 
the Yale Cowrant of February, 1909, in which he advocated 
preserving the memories of undergraduate heroism of the past 
to furnish light by which newer generations of students might 
walk. In this paper he remarked: 


In an appreciation of Mims’ “Sidney Lanier,” published some 
few years ago, the reviewer has seen fit to lodge an appeal for 
a somewhat neglected branch of literature. “If it is true, as 
Dr. Jowett held,” he says, “that the best way to teach ethics is 
through biography, it is also true that the lives of brave men 
and women afford the most inspiring material for the making of 
brave men and women. ‘There ought to be in every school, as in 
every home, a small library of heroism, which should contain the 
stories, not only of the heroes of mythology, the colossal figures 
fashioned by the imagination of men to express the highest daring 
of purpose and achievement, but of patient, enduring, victorious 
men and women in all walks of life.” 

If the proposition holds for the world at large, it is equally 
true with reference to a college community. . . . We point with 
just pride to the histories of Kingsley, Hadley, Smith, and a 
score of others, and to the researches of Dexter and Stokes in 
Yale biography. A set of carefully compiled class records, em- 
bracing the life-stories of the members of a hundred classes, is 
accessible in the University Library. One may find also recorded 
the story of Yale in the Revolution and in the Civil War, of her 
campus, classrooms, and athletics, and of two centuries of her 
Christian activity. The romance of “Four Years at Yale” 


210 Life of Henry B. Wright 


escaped few undergraduates. Each day, as one goes about the 
campus, some graven name on tablet or on gateway speaks 
directly and eloquently of the past. The prize and scholarship 
list in the college catalogue is but one among many silent records 
of vanished men, whose lives have counted for all that was noble 
and true. And if one considers oral tradition, there suggest 
themselves to us at once a host of inspiring memorial addresses 
and addresses at anniversary gatherings, to say nothing of 
college banquets, both graduate and undergraduate. 

The list appears both long and complete. It would seem as 
if no oncoming college generation need perish for lack of knowl- 
edge. Yet I venture to assert that, although each of the above- 
mentioned agencies is perfectly adequate for the purposes for 
which it. was created, not one of them fulfills the ideal set by the 
reviewer of Mims’ “Sidney Lanier.” They are not, and were 
not intended to be records in the library of Yale wndergraduate 
heroism. There is no such library accessible at Yale today. 


Dwight and Byers Halls, the Christian Associations of 
Yale College and the Scientific School, still claimed much of 
his time each term, although he no longer maintained an 
official connection with them. Voluntary religious work on the 
campus continued to be one of his greatest interests. Every 
Yale delegation to student conferences was followed by his 
prayers. Often he would pray for each man individually. 
One of the delegation leaders to the Quadrennial Conference 
of the Student Volunteer Movement held at Kansas City in 
January, 1914, received a note saying: 


I shall think of you with your boys this week. I shall pray 
that some of them may make the decision you made. I hope you 
tell them your whole experience. 


He was always in the background, available for advice and 
help. Social life at Yale as in other colleges is not a matter 
which can be finally adjusted; there are perennial problems. 
During the winter of 1915-1916 Professor Wright became dis- 
turbed over injustices in the manner of electing men to fra- 
ternities and societies. A series of small suppers was arranged 


The Divinity School Professorship 211 


in Dwight Hall in order to arouse some of the fraternity 
leaders on this issue. Among those who attended were O. B. 
Cunningham, 717, who fell in France, and his classmates 
Prescott Bush, Bert Olsen, Lyttleton C. B. Gould, George H. 
Stillman, Kenneth 8. Simpson, Samuel Sloane Duryee, Samuel 
Sloane Walker, and George Stewart, 15. The group came 
together one night each week for five meetings. Professor 
Wright outlined the history of every society in Yale from 
the date of its founding, employing a blackboard and a 
series of graphic charts which he had devised, the whole en- 
livened with anecdotes such as the fight over Sophomore socie- 
ties and the assumption of their place by the present Junior 
fraternities of Psi Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Delta 
Phi, Zeta Psi, and Beta Theta Pi. The tale of “Stover at 
Yale” lived again by his recital of the real names of Dink 
Stover and others involved in that struggle. Unless it were 
Anson Phelps Stokes, 97, Professor Wright had more interest- 
ing stories about Yale life which adorned a tale or pointed a 
moral than any graduate associated with campus life. All his 
hearers were greatly taken by these talks and as one result he 
was invited to each fraternity house or tomb to give a lecture 
on the history of secret societies at Yale. This venture met an 
enthusiastic response and did much to put moral fiber behind 
campaign agreements of the years immediately following. He 
had no confidence in the idea that tradition and good name 
alone would keep a university wholesome. ‘‘Clean social life 
does not come about anonymously,” he would often say. Fra- 
ternities and other influential groups were the natural guard- 
ians of tradition, of sportsmanship, and of decency upon the 
campus. ‘The laissez faire idea is sheer bunk,” he once re- 
marked. 

A need for expansion to meet the growth of the University 
was felt by the Christian Association during these years. In 
the spring of 1916 a little group met at Professor Wright’s 
home for dinner once each week to consider ways and means of 
increasing the permanent funds of the Association in order that 


212 Life of Henry B. Wright 


a larger staff might be secured. Different men were commis- 
sioned to approach possible givers and present the need. 
Charles S. Campbell secured two gifts of $10,000 each, one 
from Edward 8S. Harkness, 797, and one from the late William 
Sloane, °95. Mr. Sloane had been chairman of the Advisory 
Committee from 1901 to 1915, an invaluable leader through 
the years. Professor Wright wrote to him concerning this 
gift and some previous assistance which Mr. Sloane had given 
to the Divinity School: 


My dear Bill: 

Charlie Campbell has just telephoned me about your splendid 
gift and that of Ed Harkness. 

I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your help, at just 
the right time to hearten and really assure the success of our 
ventures. That morning I came to your office a couple of years 
ago with Dean Brown and Mr. Sneath was the first time in my 
life I had ever attempted to raise money. Your help on that 
occasion, so cheerfully given, gave us heart for all the future. 
Yesterday Dean Brown was able to announce $815,000 raised in 
three years toward our fund of $1,600,000, with another 
$100,000 in sight. We always look back to that visit at your 
office as the thing which set the ball rolling. 

And now you have assured the success of this other venture 
which will mean so much to what is, after all, our greatest trust— 
the undergraduates. God bless you, Bill. I pledge you that we 
will complete the fund. I shall give Charlie all the time he needs 
till it is achieved. 

It has been a great year at Yale—but there is a bigger one 
in sight next fall. 

Faithfully, 
Henry B. Wricut 


After his first experience he never evaded the hardest tasks 
in raising money and often told the younger men whom he 
advised that some of their most fruitful religious experiences 
could come in this manner, both for themselves and for those 
whom they should approach. 


The Divinity School Professorship 213 


Yale was preparing to have a series of large evangelistic 
meetings in the spring of 1915 as a result of the Williamstown 
Conference in the previous summer. One hundred and twenty- 
five men returned in the fall for a two days’ gathering at 
Farmington before college opened, to formulate plans for the 
winter’s work. Every morning during the fall and winter 
a small prayer group met before breakfast to remember in 
intercession different matters connected with this important 
undertaking. Morgan Noyes, ’14, was Secretary of the 
Y.M.C.A. in Yale College this year. Henry Hobson, 714, 
was General Secretary, and William DeWitt, ’08, was Secre- 
tary of the Scientific School Association. These meetings were 
very much on Professor Wright’s heart. Upon receipt of a 
clipping in October from Frank N. D. Buchman, he responded: 
“Sherwood Eddy and ‘Dad’ Elliott [A. J.] have both agreed 
to come to us. God is planning a mighty campaign. Pray 
for us.” 

The Eddy meetings took place in March, 1915. Over a 
score of graduates were back for group meetings held the 
week previously and during the days of the meetings. Among 
these were Arthur Howe, 712, Sidney Lovett, 712, E. F. Jeffer- 
son, ’09, James Howard, ’09, C. S. Campbell, 09, Henry Sloane 
Coffin, °97, T. R. Hyde, °12S., and Harold S. Vreeland 7128S., at 
that time Registrar in the Sheffield Scientific School. Over one 
thousand men attended each night. This series of university 
meetings was the first large one which Sherwood Eddy had 
attempted. He spoke with great power and the number of 
men increased night by night. A general atmosphere of in- 
quiry pervaded the campus; dozens of after-meetings were held 
in dormitories and fraternities. Added to Eddy’s dash and 
charm and spiritual persuasiveness was the fact that he was a 
Yale man, ’?91S., which drew numbers to hear him. 

Mr. Eddy and Professor Wright had been friends for over 
two decades and held each other in the highest esteem. Each 
possessed notable spiritual power, but temperamentally was 
of widely variant type. Eddy was predominantly a man of 


214 Life of Henry B. Wright 


action. He was of medium height, a trifle stocky, intense, 
direct, his speech surcharged with an emotional current always 
well in hand, the prophetic fire radiating from his counte- 
nance, his rapid sentences fearlessly driving home truths with 
amazing effectiveness. After sixteen years’ grueling work as 
a missionary in India, after scores of evangelistic campaigns in 
twenty countries in Europe, Africa, and the Near and Far 
East, he stood before the Yale undergraduates at forty-seven 
without a single spot of gray in his brown hair and with a face 
that was almost boyish. He was a man of the world in the 
finest sense, consumed with evangelistic fire and fortified with 
abundant and vigorous health. On the other hand, Henry 
Wright was nearly six feet tall, powerfully built, and spoke 
with the considered, modulated utterance of the ripe scholar 
who felt the meaning and value of each sentence, winning men 
by persistent love over a long period rather than in direct at- 
tack. ‘The two understood and appreciated each other fully. 
Without Eddy’s outstanding abilities as a public speaker the 
meetings would have been impossible; without Henry Wright’s 
constant encouragement and generous help the leaders of the 
Christian Association would never have dared to attempt them. 

Professor Wright followed up the Eddy meetings by a con- 
ference during the noon hour each day for one week in the 
library of Dwight Hall. Simple, searching talks on prayer, 
Bible study, how to combat temptation, and other subjects of 
interest, were given to men who had been quickened spiritually. 

Another series of University meetings was held in March, 
1916, under Dr. John R. Mott. C. S$. Campbell, ’09, was the 
General Secretary; Henry Hobson, 14, was in the Sheffield 
Scientific School; C. H. Mallory, ’15, was the Secretary of the 
Y.M.C.A. in Yale College; and George Stewart, 715, held that 
position in the Graduate Schools. The technique of the pre- 
vious year was repeated, many graduates returning to help 
with group meetings and personal interviews. Professor 
Wright remarked in a letter to Kenneth Latourette at this 
time: **Great meetings under Mott here! Attendance averages 


The Divinity School Professorship 215 


one thousand for the first two. There are two more—tonight 
and tomorrow.” For twenty years John R. Mott had been 
a familiar figure at Yale. Whenever he was in the United 
States in term time he had visited the College Chapel yearly 
on the regular list of preachers. His tall form, perfect poise 
and dignity, and the irrefutable cogency of his reasoning, 
made a powerful appeal to the student mind. Wide travel 
and reading lent a vividness and background to his addresses. 
The fact that he more than any other man had woven together 
the tissue of the World’s Student Christian Federation made 
him doubly welcome. Mr. Mott’s and Mr. Eddy’s meetings 
supplemented each other. ‘They were among the best series 
held at Yale in the last two decades. In each case Professor 
Wright followed up the public addresses with Bible classes and 
scores of private interviews. 

After consulting with Professor Wright, the Christian 
Association brought Robert P. Wilder to Yale in the late 
winter of 1917, to conduct a series of meetings of a new type. 
One hundred and twenty-five men interested in Christian ser- 
vice were privately invited to attend. For four afternoons and 
evenings Mr. Wilder addressed the students. The fact that 
he was one of the founders of the Student Volunteer Move- 
ment, his unique experiences in India and in Europe, made him 
a picturesque figure, and his own spiritual life made a deep 
impression upon his listeners. Scores of interviews followed 
his addresses. Several men volunteered and later went to the 
foreign field, others entered the ministry in this country, many 
others had life reenforced and faith established. Robert 
Wilder and Henry Wright had grown to be close friends. 
The quiet persuasiveness of each and their spirit of absolute 
dedication formed a strong bond of mutual understanding and 
affection. 

Very notable in the academic year of 1919-1920 were the 
university meetings held in February under Henry Sloane 
Coffin, 97. Prayer groups had met for months, and numbers 
of graduates were back for interviews and for meetings in dor- 


216 Life of Henry B. Wright 


mitories. Professor Wright had been a prime mover in securing 
Dr. Coffin for these meetings. ‘The two had worked together 
in Dwight Hall in college days. Dr. Coffin had been a favorite 
preacher at Yale for several years, and his intellect, his per- 
sonal charm and his record as a faithful minister of a large 
city church in New York drew many to him. A Committee of 
One Hundred was formed to carry out all the details of ar- 
rangement, meeting in the President’s room in Woolsey Hall. 
Professor Wright addressed them for a little over fifteen min- 
utes, but in that short time he sketched the character of Henry 
Coffin and what he could bring to Yale if there was a receptive 
mood in the meetings. He touched on the need and then on 
what each man could do, and finally on the issues involved— 
the issue of spiritual life or death for scores: Yale was in 
the trough of the after-war slump and needed a revival. When 
Professor Wright had finished speaking the hearts of those 
who were responsible for the campaign beat more strongly. 
He had communicated his desire for a renewed and quickened 
Yale to at least one hundred of her finest sons. Dr. Coffin came 
with the same earnestness of spirit which had permeated the 
preparation. The incisiveness of his addresses drew more and 
more men each night. This was his first large series of re- 
ligious addresses to college men and those in charge were a bit 
anxious, but after the first night they were completely re- 
assured. Henry Wright had always stood for the principle 
of bringing varied personalities and varied interpretations of 
Christ and of life to bear upon the students at New Haven. 
Henry Sloane Coffin was different from either Dr. Eddy or Dr. 
Mott. A student described him as a New York club man who 
had devoted his life to the ministry. A French friend once 
remarked of Henry Drummond that he was un savant trés 
religieux, et au méme moment doublement un homme du 
monde—the same remark could be truly made of Henry Coffin. 
His savoir faire, his intellectual and literary attainments, 
coupled with contagious moral earnestness, equipped him in a 
peculiar way to minister to students. His approach to spir- 


The Divinity School Professorship 217 


itual problems was that of a metropolitan pastor accustomed 
to dealing with the difficulties of men in college and in after 
life. Beauty of style, a keen wit, insight into Yale life and 
ways, an uncompromising devotion to the highest Christian 
purposes for the University, won for his four addresses an 
eager and respectful hearing. The speaker pleaded for a rise 
in the spiritual temperature of Yale to thaw out the stiffness 
and ice in the hearts of men. On the third night, when he 
spoke on the Cross, the meetings reached their climax. The 
following morning headlines in the city journals read: ‘‘Coffin 
pleads for a moral springtime at Yale.” 'The ice was melting 
and the tide has not ceased to flow in many earnest lives. 

During the evening hours of these meetings in Woolsey 
Hall, Henry Wright lay ill in bed, praying constantly for the 
spirit of discernment and wisdom, the spirit of emancipation 
and redemption, to descend upon the student body. He re- 
plied to a note concerning his absence: 


I knew you would note my absence from the meetings. It is 
not pleasant to be always parading one’s ills, so I hoped I could 
just quietly slip away and have no notice taken. 

About ten days ago I slipped on the ice and fell flat on my 
back, on the back of the right lung. It gave me a good deal of 
a jolt, and while I have had no hemorrhage or anything of that 
sort, it is still lame and pains me some. I was in bed yesterday 
afternoon. By careful planning I am able to meet all my engage- 
ments that are obligations, like recitations, etc., and I am coming 
out all right; but with my lung weak I do not dare risk exposure 
in a crowd at this time. Jo and I have not forgotten you in 
prayer for three weeks, and I have prayed many times during 


the day. 


For several months he conducted courses for men who had 
been stirred in these meetings. 

Harry Emerson Fosdick came to Yale in March, 1921, for 
a series of addresses similar to the Coffin meetings. Henry 
Wright was an unfailing source of wise counsel during the 
preparation for this event. Dr. Coffin had pierced through 


218 Life of Henry B. Wright 


much of the after-war sophistry and cynicism; Dr. Fosdick 
came with an interpretation of life, of the Bible, and of the 
needs of our day which met an eager response. Many gradu- 
ates were brought back to assist and the spirit of the meet- 
ings deepened each night. Dr. Fosdick met dozens in personal 
interviews. ‘The fame of his books, his unique power of public 
address, and the arresting and picturesque manner in which 
he presented the Gospel assured him a welcome reception at 
Yale. As before, ready with prayer and counsel, stood Henry 
Wright giving courage to all. Elmore McKee was Secretary 
in Yale College at this time, and Albert Coe, ’21, Divinity 
School, in the Sheffield Scientific School. Their ability as 
leaders in this work justified their election to these positions. 
The busy professor followed up these large public meetings, 
as usual, with a series of Bible classes especially designed to 
meet the needs of men who had received a spiritual awakening. 

In his interest in the undergraduate Professor Wright did 
not forget the more advanced students. During the winter of 
1915-1916 he conducted a voluntary Bible-study course on 
“The Message of Jesus for the Scholar and the Teacher,” a 
course which he had worked out in his own private Bible study 
while in France. In it he gave his experience as tutor, profes- 
sor, and division officer with disciplinary powers. ‘The revela- 
tions which his old masters had given him, as well as the wisdom 
of his father, the Dean, through his twenty-five years’ experi- 
ence, were shared, and unsolved problems centering about work 
for the doctorate and some of its unethical aspects were also 
treated. The teacher’s duty to his family, the division of time 
between students and private research, he touched upon with 
fearless candor. The problem of arousing dull, incurious 
minds, the emancipation of the intellect from prejudice, were 
studied, and he then pushed on to his great theme, the redemp- 
tion of individual students. Several came to the group bitter 
with the bitterness which only the suppressed graduate student 
knows when working at a perplexing problem, with the answer 
months away, and a family to support. Not a few owed to 


The Divinity School Professorship 219 


this group and others like it a wholly changed viewpoint toward 
life. Professor Wright could never have done these things 
had he not revealed his own struggles and victories and defeats. 
He was one of the group struggling with them in their 
problems. ' 

Graduate School students approached him with perplexities 
of every nature—puzzling problems about courses, subjects for 
theses, failures, misunderstandings with professors or fellow 
students, and all the thousand and one difficulties which rest 
like a leaden cloak upon fhe man working in desperate haste 
to finish his thesis by a certain day. His struggles in student 
days and later about the proper division of time, his meticulous 
honesty, his ideals of hard work, the simple virtues of thor- 
oughness and integrity, which he patiently made clear, steeled 
many to dare tasks which would otherwise have been left 
untouched. Once when a philosophy paper refused to take 
form he quoted the words of Henry Drummond: ‘First write 
it in simplicity, then in profundity, then write it a third time 
to make profundity appear simplicity.” 

Men in his courses always represented a special responsi- 
bility. He soon came to know them personally and, because he 
revealed his perplexities, they felt free to speak of their diffi- 
culties. Scores bared their lives to him as they will never reveal 
them to any other human being. No priest’s confessional 
heard more stories of sin and doubt and moral confusion than 
the walls of his rather plain little study. 

In the midst of this work among his classes there was 
always another flock in the University at large. In February 
of 1920 the infant child of a married student, who had been 
an army officer in the war, was suffering from a severe cerebral 
trouble. When the news reached Professor Wright he imme- 
diately sent a letter: 


My dear boy: 
I did not know until recently of the anxiety you have been in 
over your little one. Mother and I know just what you and your 


220 Life of Henry B. Wright 


brave little wife have gone through, for my youngest brother 
Ellsworth was almost exactly the same way for the first months 
of his life. Our great comfort was in the thought that God was 
not bringing this upon us to punish us but that He felt just as 
anxious about it as we did and that He was working with us to 
make it come out right. There is no such thing as death, and if 
the little one goes to behold the face of God she will be in tender 
care, though you will be lonely. We are praying that God will 
reveal to you His love and solicitude for the little one and that 
you will feel secure in Him. 

You must have been under great expense at the hospital. 
Enclosed is a little valentine toward it. 

With love, 
HENRY 


The valentine which he mentioned was a check for twenty- 
five dollars. | 

It is one thing to keep in contact with men while they are 
in one’s classes, it is a far different matter to maintain a close 
friendship with them in later days. He wrote regularly to 
many in remote corners of the world. ‘Three months after his 
death, Eugene Farmer wrote from Kabinda in the Belgian 
Congo: 


You cannot know how happy we were to have your good letter 
upon our arrival at our station. Often I used to think that you 
went to too much trouble trying to keep in touch with the men 
who have been in the Divinity School, but I now take it all back. 
I will say, however, that much that you do must seem to you to 
be apparently thankless. It means a lot to us boys out in the 
remote sections of the earth to think that the busiest men in 
the world, the professors, have time, or at least take time, to keep 
in touch with the boys. It does our hearts good, though it is not 
possible to fully express our appreciation, to hear from our 
“Spiritual Fathers.” 


That there was a genuine craving for his friendly letters is 
manifested by a farewell note from Dryden Phelps, ’17, before 
departing for Chang Tu in West China. 


The Divinity School Professorship 221 


Leaving my own country and associations of home, church, 
and college, I shall hunger for what you can give me. Already 
you have given me more out of your own life than you can ever 
know—until you get to Heaven. . 

I thank God for your quiet, pervasive work with men at Yale. 
God bless you always! 


A letter from Frank Buchman, who was traveling with 
Sherwood Day and Sherwood Eddy in China, reveals how 
closely the mind and heart of the quiet scholarly man in New 
Haven were intertwined in lives on the other side of the world: 


Yamato Hotel, 
Port Arthur, 
20th September 1918. 


Dear Henry: 


Our messages and our movements marvelously synchronize. 
You send me two copies of ‘*The Soldier’s Spirit”; Plat comes 
down from Mukden, sees it, says: “Can you let me have a copy? 
I want to translate it into Chinese for the son of the governor 
of Mukden who is just starting out on a soldier’s career, and of 
course I shall want it to go to the other soldiers of the Chinese 
army.” 

The following day I have a letter from a very influential 
Swedish Y.M.C.A. lady, the daughter of a prominent professor 
in Sweden. She started a movement to begin a Swedish university 
in China and through her family connections it gained the atten- 
tion and patronage of His Grace the Archbishop and also the 
Crown Prince of Sweden. Professor Nystrom was selected to come 
to China to head a commission to see what could be done. He is 
just now returning. This Y.M.C.A. Secretary has been wanting 
to see a deeper religious development in the life of the man who 
will lead this movement in China and through the thought in 
the triangle God has used Miss Naythorst and myself to get into 
vital touch with this man, and I am writing you about one of 
the results. Miss Naythorst writes: “I also asked him to buy 
Wright’s book, “he Will of God and a Man’s Life Work,” for 
translation and publication by our Student Movement and I hope 


222 Life of Henry B. Wright 


he will also read it. I have also written Dr. Carl Fries, whom 
I know personally, informing him of the situation.” 

I am sending under separate cover part of the report of the 
Kuling and the Lily Valley Conferences. A request has come 
from some of the leaders in China that it appear in print in 
pamphlet form such as I shall enclose with the manuscript. I 
have told them that I cannot give my consent until I have yours. 
Dr. E. G. Tewksbury, father of Gardner Tewksbury, wants to 
edit the report and send it out privately to Christian workers. 
I am not especially keen to have it appear in print and it may 
be much wiser to withhold your consent until it can be put into 
permanent form. The decision really rests with you. 

I have used the triangle and the ‘On top” phrases and also 
the outline of your “Diagnosis” lecture in China, using my own 
laboratory experiences. ‘The manuscript will show you just 
what I have used. I have always given credit to you. I have 
always guarded the material and the only time I have seen any- 
thing in print is the article in the “Korean Mission Field.” 
The triangle has caught all over the Far East. Bible women, 
students, evangelists, pastors, and missionaries all quote it and 
most of them know that it is your thought. 

You, your life, and your message were frequently mentioned 
at the Kuling Conference. I have just written a friend again 
today that much of the best in my message is yours. I want to 
retain my own literary honesty and also maintain the high 
standards that ought to govern men who are collaborating on a 
given subject; that is why I am writing you fully, so I can have 
your judgment regarding the printing of the incomplete mes- 
sage and also that all relations may be thoroughly safeguarded. 

You come nearer than any other man in the sphere of my 
acquaintance to the one who actually incarnates the principles 
of Christ; and your father’s life is the theme that I invariably 
present when trying to “humanize” a faculty. Is there any life, 
or are there any articles about your father other than those in 
the Alumni Weekly? If so, kindly send them to me. 

I have experienced what you often said we would meet with— 
criticism—and my pioneering along these lines in China hasn’t 
been altogether a “bed of roses,” although the results have been 
far beyond my highest expectation. 


The Divinity School Professorship 223 


The movement has wonderfully caught on in Korea and 
Japan. Sherwood Eddy wanted me to go to India this fall, but 
I wrote him from Kobe in June that I hoped very much you could 
undertake the India mission. Your experience among the 
soldiers has been wonderful and I am coveting the chance of 
hearing your reactions. 

Write me c/o Thomas Cook & Sons, Yokohama, Japan, just 
all the best of news: where George Stewart is now; what Harold 
Vreeland is doing; where Henry Hobson is; where Thayer is; 
what Bill Flagg is doing. Sherry and I are just hungry for news. 

Grateful for every remembrance of you. 

Affectionately, 
FRANK 


The triangle which Frank Buchman mentions, was a device 
which Professor Wright employed to explain his theory of 
prayer. “I used to pray,” he would say, “O God, help 
John Jones or Sam Smith. There was a flash up to the Al- 
mighty and another from Him toward the man prayed for. In 
later years I have prayed that, wherever possible, God would 
show me how to help my friends and work out through me as 
far as possible the answer to my petitions. God is helpless 
unless He can find human wills willing to do His will.” It 
was this emphasis upon personal willingness to bring about the 
fulfillment of prayer which in its freshness and originality 
caught the attention of the groups here and in the Far East. 
The whole idea was made graphic through the use of the 
blackboard. 

The “On top” phrases to which Buchman referred were 
extensions of the idea behind the Hughlings-Jackson law. This 
law briefly stated is that narcotics attack the higher planes 
within the mentality first and by successive stages penetrate 
to the lower. As the aesthetic and spiritual, the altruistic 
and restraining qualities, are the last acquisitions in the evolu- 
tionary process, they are the first to be deadened under re- 
peated doses of alcohol or drugs or any narcotizing agency. 


224 Life of Henry B. Wright 


The initial idea for this approach was received when Professor 
Wright read Vance Thompson’s effective little volume entitled 
Drink and Be Sober. In this book the author employs the 
phrase, “Drunk on top.” Professor Wright extended the use 
of this catchword to meet numerous situations where some 
arresting force had come in to prevent spiritual growth or to 
destroy initiative. Under the terms, drunk on top, narcotized 
on top, satiated on top, emasculated on top, egoized on top, 
he employed some dozens of illustrations from personal deal- 
ings with men which brought home to those in his classes the 
issues of drunkenness, abuse of tobacco, gluttony, sex aberra- 
tions, and conceit. Professor Wright felt that the instincts 
were the battleground of man’s spiritual life and their proper 
direction his chief problem. These lectures constituted a most 
searching study of spiritual paralysis. 

The American Y.M.C.A. was putting forth enormous 
efforts in the three years before America entered the conflict 
in behalf of the prisoners-of-war overseas. The story of 
prison camp work in Germany is admirably given in Conrad 
Hoffman’s In the Prison Camps of Germany, but the story of 
the redemptive service of the Y.M.C.A. in Russia and Siberia, 
with its canteens, miniature universities, sports, libraries, 
varied entertainments, and religious services, is a bright chap- 
ter of love audessus de la mélée which remains to be written, 
although some account of it is given in the admirably written 
two volume work of the Association war activities entitled 
Service with Fighting Men. Hundreds of thousands of Ger- 
mans were in camps in Russia, Siberia, France, and England, 
and equally large numbers of French, English, and Russians 
were in the central countries. To keep these men from de- 
caying mentally and spiritually was the task to which the 
Association gave itself. In the fall of 1916 American college 
men and women raised over $150,000 for this purpose on the 
basis of individual sacrifice for fellow-students in their hour 
of disaster. Henry Wright constantly recruited men and 


The Divinity School Professorship 225 


raised funds for the work of the Y.M.C.A. among prisoners- 
of-war, to which he gave sacrificially. 

Professor Wright believed in the power of small groups 
which set their minds and hearts to the solution of spiritual 
problems. In 1914 he eagerly accepted an invitation to join 
a small circle of friends who should meet together for mutual 
spiritual benefit once each year. Principal Alfred E. Stearns 
of Andover wrote about this group: 


The plan originated, I believe, in the fertile mind of Rev. 
H. A. Bridgeman, then editor-in-chief of the Congregationalist 
and now Headmaster of the Lawrence Academy of Groton, Mass. 
I find in my files that the correspondence with him on the sub- 
ject began apparently in the spring of 1914. The idea was to 
get together a group of congenial souls who would meet annually 
in some quiet place and talk over in a frank and friendly way the 
religious problems which were uppermost in their minds. We 
wished to get the personal contacts and points of view of the 
other fellow. 

As originally made up, the group consisted of Bridgeman, 
Gaius Glenn Atkins, J. Edgar Park, William R. Moody, 
Cornelius H. Patton, Willard Sperry, Dean Charles R. Brown, 
Henry Hallam Tweedy, Wright, and myself. The meetings were 
held for several years, but not all of these men were able to 
attend—though as a rule the attendance was generous. As I 
recall it, the first two meetings were at the Woodland Park Hotel 
in Auburndale, and the last one at Park’s church in Newton. 
We met at about ten in the morning, had luncheon together, and 
rounded out the conference, if I may call it that, at about four 
in the afternoon. 

The topics which came up for discussion—or better, which we 
used as the basis of our discussions—were the following: 


What Jesus Christ means to me personally and theologi- 
cally. 

Prayer. 

How has this last year affected your personal faith? 
(This was in the fall of 1915 and the question was 


226 Life of Henry B. Wright 


prompted by the war conditions prevailing at that 
time. ) 

The Heart of the Christian Religion. 

Your Conception of God: Has it been modified by current 
events in the world today or by the writings of H. G. 
Wells or any other person? What are the essential 
elements in your present conception of God? 


This last-mentioned meeting in 1917 was held in Park’s church in 
West Newton and was followed by a simple but most impressive 
communion service. 

Wright’s place in this little group was unique. He was the 
mystic of us all and his personal experiences of the year as he 
recounted them, with that intense earnestness which always char- 
acterized him, moved us deeply. I think we all felt that he lived 
almost on a plane by himself in his spiritual life, a bit nearer 
the stars as it were; but his sincerity and absolute freedom from 
cant were marked traits of his makeup and prompted us to a 
little more soul-searching than we had perhaps been accustomed 
to do. 


As a result of a small group in the class of 1915, largely 
due to his inspiration, an interesting movement against ex- 
penditure of class funds for liquor at reunions and class din- 
ners came to a climax in the spring of 1917. The Senior 
classes in Yale College and in the Scientific School for several 
years had voted dry on this issue by a large majority. In May 
Professor Wright joined a committee known as the ‘“‘Committee 
of 71,” of which William Howard Taft, now Chief Justice, 
was chairman. ‘This organization took a postal card vote of 
all living graduates, over twenty-three thousand in number. 
Two questions were presented: first, whether class reunion 
funds should be expended for liquor; second, whether liquor 
should be served at reunion headquarters. Replies were re- 
ceived from 8,693 graduates. On the question of spending 
class funds for liquor, only 223 voted “‘yes” and 8,476 voted 
“no.” On the advisability of serving liquor at reunion head- 
quarters 616 voted yes and 8,050 voted no. That is, 97.4 


The Divinity School Professorship 227 


per cent of those who replied to the first question voted “no,” 
and 92.6 per cent of those replying to the second question 
voted “no.” ‘The vote was impressive and received much pub- 
licity; a paper as far west as the Deseret Evening News of 
Salt Lake City ran an editorial entitled “Old Eli Goes Back 
on Booze.” Professor Wright sent a communication to the 


Yale Daily News, on March 17, 1917: 


To the Chairman of The News: 

Sir: I note with surprise that the discussion regarding “Re- 
union Booze” has gone on in your columns for over a week and 
that as yet no champion has arisen for the “wets.” I am at a 
loss to explain this silence. Can it be that the arguments of 
what was supposed to be an overwhelming majority in favor of 
“Booze” have never been grounded in reason? Have these 
arguments owed their strength, all the years that the question 
has been before us, to the fact that wit and sarcasm, powerful 
allies in any cause, good or bad, had been called to the rescue 
of an illogical position and made what was wrong seem not only 
amusing but also attractive and inevitable? I await with interest 
any arguments that can be brought forward for a “Boozy” re- 
union in this year of our Lord 1917, when diplomatic relations 
have been broken with Germany and when our nation is sorely 
needing not only the best that every man has to give, but also all 
that he might have had to give had it not been dissipated and 


squandered. 
Henry B. Wrieut, 798 


Richard C. Morse, Yale ’62, in a letter dated March 24, 
1917, concerning Professor Wright’s communication, re- 
marked: 


Many, many thanks for the copies of The News and the good 
news they bring. What an interesting point of view Professor 
Wright’s letter presents! The absence of open printed opposi- 
tion is a fine testimony to that sober second thought which is 
particularly manifest among men of education. 


228 Life of Henry B. Wright 


A small “White Book” composed of clippings from the 
Yale Daily News was published for those who desired it. T. R. 
Hyde, 712S., wrote for four hundred copies to send to his class- 
mates. Hundreds of letters approving the effort flooded the 
New Haven office; many hailed it as the greatest move of its 
kind the graduates had attempted; others urged that the com- 
mittee constitute itself a permanent body. Throughout the 
process of organizing the movement and taking the vote, Pro- 
fessor Wright was a leading spirit. While at Plattsburg he 
followed with keen interest the committee’s work and the pub- 
lication of the result. A large share of credit for the success 
of the Committee is due Charles 8S. Campbell, ’09, and Murray 
Chism, 716, for painstaking labor which they gave in answering 
correspondence, tabulating results, and raising Hepes funds 
to cover expenses. 

The idea of small groups Professor Wright carried into 
nearly every department of his work at Yale. In the Divinity 
School he had a gathering each week in his office of the men in 
his Y. M. C. A. courses. They came voluntarily. Each man 
spoke with the utmost frankness, giving an account of his 
spiritual experience. ‘Those present remember the rare insight 
of Professor Wright in selecting Scripture passages which 
bore on the life stories of the men, something of which he gen- 
erally knew or surmised beforehand. It would be difficult to 
estimate the influence of the fellowship of this group. 

After the war it occurred to Professor Wright that we 
might prepare a volume on religious work among students. 
In the spring of 1919, while he was still in the Army work, 
we exchanged many notes regarding the proposed book, which 
was subsequently published in 1920, entitled Personal Evan- 
gelism among Students. At the close of hostilities I had 
returned to the University and was serving as General Secre- 
tary at Dwight Hall, with William McCance, °18, in the 
Scientific School; Elmore McKee, 19, in Yale College; and E. 
Fay Campbell, 718, in the Graduate Schools. While I was at 


The Divinity School Professorship 229 


Northfield in June with the Yale delegation, Professor Wright 
posted a note regarding the book and other matters: 


Your letter with its many suggestions for our little book 
reached me safely. Thank you for them. I believe we can make 
a real contribution to the efficiency of our college secretaries 
through such a volume. Perhaps we may not be able to get it 
out by October, but we will keep at it and see. 

We shall look for you sometime on Monday. Little Junior 
Barnes cannot be moved before the end of next week, so we shall 
surely be here. I am going over all my notes and ordering my 
books. I shall be in splendid shape to do lots of work next fall, 
after these weeks of systematization. 

Josephine and I are much in prayer for you at Northfield 
each day. We never neglect it. After all, spiritual forces are 
the triumphant ones, much as we should like to have a hand in 
what is going on. 

I am also reading the final proofs of Father’s posthumous 
book, ‘The Young Man and Teaching.” It will be of real help, 
I am sure, and [I feel it is the best thing Father ever did. It is 
a book of counsel from fifty years of experience in teaching and 
discipline. 

I go to New York tomorrow for the final meeting of our 
committee on the “‘War in its Relation to the Religious Outlook.” 

Love to all, 
HENRY 


The Committee on the War and thé Religious Outlook, 
which he mentioned, was constituted by the joint action of the 
Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America and the 
General War-time Commission of the Churches “to consider 
the state of religion as affected by the war, with special refer- 
ence to the duty and opportunity of the Churches, and to pre- 
pare its findings for submission to the Churches.” This body 
published several valuable reports. 

Again in September Professor Wright mentioned the book 
which we were writing: 


230 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Your good note with the additional chapters came today. 
You are right about the need of doing all we can. I have not 
been able to do a stroke of work directly on my part this summer, 
although I have worked on the ‘“Theory and Practice of Personal 
Evangelism” all the time. I have many new points of view to 
add when I do get down to business. Go ahead with the next 
chapter you write about. I intended that you should write that. 

I am having a wonderful study in my Morning Watch on 
“The Language of God.” I am collecting all cases in the entire 
Bible of God’s messages to men and am trying to analyze them 
to see in what way He speaks to us today. 


Problems centering about pacifism as well as many other 
wartime difficulties were not settled when the Armistice was 
signed. Peace renewed discussion. Professor Wright’s atti- 
tude to war did not change. As we have said, he wanted to be a 
pacifist and had almost reached that position when Germany 
declared her unrestricted submarine warfare. ‘The question 
of pacifism was often discussed in interviews and by letters. 
In February, 1922, he received a copy of an article by Fred- 
erick Palmer, in T'he World T'omorrow, in which the writer 
censured an utterance of Dean Bosworth of Oberlin to which 
Professor Wright replied: 


Now just a word regarding Frederick Palmer’s remarks in 
The World Tomorrow. He says: ‘The Dean is right, in that we 
ought not to kill in hate, but in duty and necessity in time of 
war.” This, to me, is the crux of the whole matter. I do not 
believe that Dean Bosworth justifies war in his article except as 
a matter of duty and necessity. None of us would court war, 
but I am very much concerned over the attitude taken by cer- 
tain pacifists at the present day regarding those who saw their 
duty and did a disagreeable task in the last war. I would like 
to ask Frederick Palmer how he would classify such a passage as 
this, from Abraham Lincoln: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do 
we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass 
away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
up by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 


The Divinity School Professorship 231 


toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the 
lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said 
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments 
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether!’ ” 

I believe that much in the pacifists’ attitude which is now 
flaunting itself unchallenged is in terms of “a futile optimism that 
is mocked by the tragedies of fact,” and I know well enough that 
if another unprovoked war should be launched by Japan or 
Russia upon the world, neither you nor I would take the pacifist 
attitude. I agree with you that we should do all that we can 
to make war impossible, just as we should do all that we can to 
make disease impossible; but when either war or disease comes 
neither you nor I will fly to a refuge of sentimental ease, but 
will go out and do the dirty work of meeting and overcoming the 
aggressors. And [ still insist that the front line trench is the 
only place where you and I will find Christ at such a time. I 
should be glad to talk this matter over with you further, for, as 
Roosevelt said, ‘When men fear righteous war or women mother- 
hood, we have entered upon a decadent civilization.” Until 
further light comes, I shall prefer to follow the two prophets 
whom I have quoted. 


Many pacifist friends differed with him radically in his 
stand on the War, but he rested under the conviction that the 
whole world would have suffered more, ethically and spiritually, 
if England and the United States had stayed out of the War 
than it did when they participated. The issue never appeared 
to him to be a clean-cut vote between the sword and the Cross. 
There might be times when taking up the sword would be a 
form of bearing the Cross. The wave of pacifism following the 
War he felt was largely due to the frustration of men’s hopes 
by the refusal of the United States to enter the League of 
Nations. Pacifism was their reaction to an uncompleted vic- 
tory, a triumph robbed of its lawful fruits. 

Another interest which Professor Wright carried along 
with his college work was his relationship to the International 
Committee of the Y.M.C.A. and to the City Association in 
New Haven. He had been offered at least two important posi- 


232 Life of Henry B. Wright 


tions upon the International Committee and had served on 
various sub-committees. E. T. Colton, chief of the Religious 
Work Department at national headquarters, wrote him on 
July 30, 1920, from Chicago: 


Before getting into my vacation in Maine, covering the month 
of August, I want to express to you the earnest desire of all my 
colleagues in the Religious Work Department and of myself that 
you continue to associate yourself with us as an honorary staff 
member, which will give us the benefit of your spirit and counsel, 
your presence at the more important staff meetings, and as much 
time as is practicable in conferences. 


Professor Wright had the highest regard for Mr. Colton and 
replied to him from Oakham on August 15, 1920: 


Your kind note of July 30 has been forwarded to me here. I 
shall be very glad to continue as an honorary member of your 
staff and shall try to run down to New York for your staff meet- 
ings, as I have been unable to do before. Beginning this fall, I 
shall give all my time to religious work. Please let me know when 
your regular meetings come. 

I appreciate deeply the privilege of association with you. 


In 1914 he was invited to a place on the Board of Directors 
of the New Haven Y.M.C.A., a position which he accepted 
and to which he gave much labor and thought. A few months 
before his death, after the annual campaign for funds, the 
New Haven Association found itself still short $7,000 needed 
to pay an old debt which had weighed it down for years. 
Winthrop Bushnell, another Yale son who has since died, was 
chairman of the meeting. When all the reports were in from 
the collectors, Professor Wright quietly arose and asked that 
he and Mrs. Wright be permitted to take $500 of the old 
debt, if they could pay it off in installments. All there were 
electrified—they knew the man and what it meant. Little 
knots of men gathered about the room, and in fifteen minutes 


The Divinity School Professorship 233 


an amount equal to the entire debt was pledged. No one who 
was there will ever forget that night! 

As a university professor, but chiefly because of his spiri- 
tual power, he was in constant demand in New Haven to speak 
at many different kinds of meetings. He was especially popu- 
lar as a speaker to men in groups of one hundred to five 
hundred. After one such address Amos P. Wilder, ’84, one of 
the editorial staff of the New Haven Journal Courier, posted 
him the following note: 


I heard your address Saturday night. The following speaker 
was right when he said such forcible presentation of the place of 
the devotiona] life is unusual; I had the thought that you can 
do what few can in addressing laymen—perhaps in a large way. 
It is such intimate, sincere, kindly presentation. I do hope you 
will not let the academics too much engross you—that you will 
get out among “folks.” It is not possible that in the cities large 
groups can be arranged; there is a diversity of gifts and it may 
be that the Drummond-Moody crowds are not for you, but rather 
smaller groups—but perhaps a series of three or four addresses 
in a city, allowing those who hear the first to bring others, might 
get a crowd out. I am afraid you are not a very good adver- 
tiser yourself. No one can hear such an address without being 
kindled; it is a combination of personal experience and stirring 
evangelism, the whole set in the truth of scholarship, which is 
uncommon. So think and pray, dear fellow, how you can be of 
maximum use. I am glad you have the strength and poise to do 
good work. ... I want big audiences to hear that Saturday 
address—so many not only need it but are hungry, if we can but 
tell them where it can be heard. 


After the War, in order to assume full civic responsibility 
and desiring to identify himself with the spiritual forces in 
his neighborhood, he resigned his membership in the College 
Church and united with the Church of The Redeemer, a Con- 
gregationalist parish. Later he was made a deacon and re- 
joiced in the fellowship with the Rev. Roy M. Houghton and 
his people. 


234 Life of Henry B. Wright 


The sense of God was as real to him as any human touch. 
The presence of a mystic in the midst of a materialistic age 
and in an academic environment, where emphasis was laid upon 
scientific method, was a source of helpfulness to many. His 
immediate consciousness of God and His power to lead and 
direct the lives of men was the greatest spiritual event which 
ever entered the lives of scores of his fellow townsmen in New 
Haven. This sense of the presence of God gave him remark- 
able assurance in regard to the life after death. His letters to 
friends in grief were often treasured for the sheer white light 
of faith which they reflected. When on a trip to the colleges 
of the South in which he was holding personal evangelism in- 
stitutes, he received word of the death of the wife of Professor 
Allen Johnson of the History Department at Yale, and he 
immediately wrote to his bereaved colleague: 


Chapel Hill, N. C. 
November 20, 1921. 
My dear friend: 

Only yesterday morning, in Davidson, North Carolina, at the 
home of Professor Pettengill, Mrs. Pettengill—who was Rachel 
Little, daughter of Professor Little of Bowdoin—gave me a 
message to deliver to your dear wife. As I boarded the train for 
Chapel Hill, a letter was handed to me from Mrs. Wright telling 
me of your great bereavement. All the way during the six hours 
of my trip I was thinking of you and your boy. It is still upper- 
most in my thoughts today and I long to be of some service to 
you, but nearly a thousand miles intervene and I cannot. 

I remember once when Mrs. Johnson stopped me on the street 
and told me that her boy had written regarding one of my talks 
to the school in which I had said that there wasn’t any such thing 
as death. It was because of the remarkable experience I had 
in connection with my illness of 1912-19138 that I left the teach- 
ing of history—a calling very dear to me—to try to convey to 
men, although I am still a layman, my feelings on the reality 
of the life eternal. I can only say to you that I not only hope 
and believe it, but I know it. I have not given an institute in a 
college during this trip without praying to God for the strength 


The Divinity School Professorship 235 


that would come from the consciousness of the fellowship of my 
dear ones who have already passed over into the Other Room— 
and they are many. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent 
forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit 
salvation??? Do not dread the places where your dear one has 
been, but let the blessed hope of her spiritual companionship 
there grow with you, as it has with me regarding my absent ones, 
into a certainty. I have been lonely many times, but I know the 
parting is only for a season. 
Devotedly, 
Henry B. Wricut 


One of his colleagues on the Divinity School Faculty met 
with a grievous sorrow through the loss of his wife in the fall 
of 1922. Professor Wright, like other members of the Faculty, 
was deeply affected and immediately wrote him a letter: 


My dear Douglas: 

You have helped my own faith so much on the whole problem 
of suffering and bereavement, both by your books and by your 
life, that any word I could send you, other than an expression of 
deepest love, would be something I had learned from you. But 
I do know that what you have taught me about the whole problem 
of evil and trouble is true. It has stood the tests—none as great 
as the one you have met, for I still have my dear wife. . 
Thanks to you, I know that God does not send trouble to dis- 
cipline us but that He is with us when in accordance with natural 
law we pass into trouble. And not only He but they are with 
us. To me the communion of saints is as real as my fellowship 
with my colleagues. . . . I have in my study a little closet which 
I call “The Other Room” in which are the photographs of 
my dear ones who have gone on. I open the door and hold 
my Morning Watch before them. And I know they are 
with me. 

So, my dear friend, I know that the better acquaintance with 
your dear wife which Mrs. Wright and I so coveted we shall have 
in twenty years at most, and even before that she will come to 
help you in your tasks—‘“‘Are they not all ministering spirits sent 


236 Life of Henry B. Wright 


forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit 


salvation?” 
Faithfully, 
Henry B. Wricut 


Such letters out of his own experience brought a rich 
spiritual fruitage through the years. 

The same awareness of God accounts for his painstaking 
thoroughness and care in details. Colleagues constantly mar- 
velled at his persistence and carefulness in committee work. 
Whatever he presented in faculty meeting was carefully 
planned, often charted in his fine handwriting. On one occa- 
sion, when a man was being considered for a position in the 
Divinity School, Professor Wright went at once to him and 
presented the situation. Later five members of the Divinity 
School Faculty were invited to dine with him at the Wright 
home. At that time Professor Wright presented a card- 
indexed digest of the records of all men of any prominence 
teaching in that field throughout the United States and drew 
deductions therefrom. All present were amazed at the com- 
pleteness with which the case was presented. ‘The man in 
question gave a negative reply, but Professor Wright felt 
that they had found God’s will in the matter and was per- 
fectly content. 

Because of his characteristic thoroughness matters requir- 
ing special care such as work on the curriculum of the school 
were placed in his hands. The summer of 1922 found him with 
the gigantic task of editing the Centennial Catalogue of the 
Yale Divinity School. This task was especially difficult in- 
asmuch as theological degrees were not granted to students in 
the early years of the school. Professor Wright’s training in 
historical research was brought to bear on this situation. With 
four students working for him in his summer home, in an in- 
credibly short period he made the records complete and pub- 
lished the catalogue for the Centennial celebration in the fall. 

A Centennial volume was brought out by the faculty en- 


The Divinity School Professorship 237 


titled Education for Christian Service. Dean Brown was so 
impressed with Professor Wright’s chapter on “The Study of 
Christian Evangelism” that he gave it the place of honor in 
the book. In this paper Professor Wright made a statement 
which caused considerable comment: 


No man or woman oozes unconsciously into the kingdom of 
God. In the final analysis, all enlist, and every soldier knows 
when he enlisted. No one today insists on sudden, catastrophic 
spiritual experiences, but we must still insist on definite ones, 


He gave the historical address which many felt was the high 
point in the convocation assembled to celebrate the Centennial. 

At Christmas time in 1923, Professor Wright went to Oak- 
ham to enjoy the holidays in the fresher air of the hills and 
among the kindly people he loved so well. He seemed to be 
in perfect health. The night after Christmas he was the en- 
thusiastic leader of a meeting at his home in the interests of a 
community project. Early the following morning he coughed 
and apparently injured a vessel in his damaged lung. The 
first slight bleeding soon abated, but a few hours later he 
passed away from what was evidently a large internal hem- 
orrhage. He knew the history of such cases and felt that 
the end might be near. “I am sure of Christ. Life has been 
so wonderful, and it is going to be more wonderful!” were 
almost his last words. When no longer able to speak he would 
wink both his eyes merrily, as was his habit when amused, to 
cheer those who with breaking hearts were helpless to aid him. 

Benjamin W. Bacon, the distinguished New Testament 
scholar, six months after Professor Wright’s death, said: 


Our Commencement was over yesterday. One of the mem- 
orable things about this occasion was the action of the gradu- 
ating class, fifty-six in number, all poor boys working their own 
way and most having college debts to pay. Out of their poverty 
they subscribed over $4,000 toward a memorial chair for Henry 
B. Wright. Of course you know Henry’s record as a scholar 


238 Life of Henry B. Wright 


and teacher eclipses that of any one of his colleagues on the 
Yale Divinity School Faculty. He had great administrative 
capacity, developed as General Secretary of the Yale Y.M.C.A., 
then as Secretary of the University until Anson Stokes took 
hold. I used to marvel at his efficiency and order in secretarial 
work. The heaviest jobs of committee work always fell to 
Henry, because he could and would do them. And then the 
report would be rendered, on time, complete, accurate, a pleasure 
to the eye in that beautiful, fine, rapid hand he wrote. The 
reason we so seldom thought of him as scholar or administrator 
was simply because his whole heart was taken up with personal 
religion. The redemption of individual human souls was his 
passion. If the Student Y.M.C.A. could have a man made to 
order, it would be difficult to match Henry Wright. He was a 
gentleman, a scholar, a Christian from God’s own mould. 


Like Valiant-for-the-Truth he passed over. His marks 
and scars he took with him to be a witness for him. His 
courage and skill he left to them who could gain them. And 
so all the trumpets sounded on the other shore! 

Loving hands brought him back to 20 Livingston Street, 
and there on the morning of the funeral service Mrs. Wright, 
Raymond Culver, and George Stewart conducted family 
prayers. Many who had found a home with them were present. 
Later Dean Brown spoke beautifully at’ Battell Chapel, where 
his bearers were his students and colleagues of the Faculty. 
The Red Triangle in flaming carnations for the resurrection, 
sent by Arthur Hoffmire and the men in the Army Y.M.C.A., 
and the wreath from the students in the work of Dwight and 
Byers Halls were placed on the coffin as symbols of two of his 
life’s greatest devotions. On the same train which so often 
had carried rollicking deputation teams of clear-eyed college 
students, he was borne to Oakham, to be laid beside his father, 
the Dean, and his brother Alfred. 

On that day at the great Student Volunteer Convention at 
Indianapolis, John R. Mott was speaking on “The Commit- 


The Divinity School Professorship 239 


ment of Life.”? In the course of his address he mentioned the 
passing of Henry Wright: 


At this very hour while I am speaking, I would remind you 
that in Battell Chapel at Yale is being conducted the funeral 
service of our friend, Henry B. Wright. I use the word “our” 
advisedly, for he was in truth the friend of all college men and 
women who had at heart the bringing of students under the sway 
of Christ and relating them to the plans of His Kingdom. 
Through him countless Yale men in undergraduate days, and 
students of other colleges who sat under his teaching at inter- 
collegiate conferences, were led out into a reasonable and vital 
faith in Christ and into lives of unselfish service. God spoke 
through his life, through his teaching, through his selfless deeds. 
Although living on a most slender margin of physical strength, 
his life literally abounded in fruitfulness, because he preserved 
a life of unbroken union with his Divine Lord. He embodied, 
illustrated and made contagious that of which I am speaking 
this morning—the commitment of life to the Lord of Life. He 
was the author of a number of valuable writings, but I venture 
to state that the one book which has had by far the largest 
formative influence on the lives of students, and which will con- 
tinue to have a message to successive generations of students 
everywhere, is the one entitled “The Will of God and a Man’s 
Life Work.” Henry Wright served his generation by the Will 
of God. He was wont to visit Northfield and while there to 
attend and participate in meetings on Round Top, where Mr. 
Moody was buried. As I think of him this morning I recall 
those words engraved on Mr. Moody’s tombstone—words which 
tell of the motive power of the lives of both Moody and Henry 
Wright and which reveal to all of us the secret of undying influ- 
ence: “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 


Dr. Mott wrote to Mrs. Wright from Indianapolis: 


Henry’s countless friends in the great Convention were moved 
as a body of workers have seldom been moved by the word which 
came to us about his going. God used this to lend a deeper 
tone to the Convention and influence the ideals and decisions of 
many. 


240 Life of Henry B. Wright 


Friends gathered the following day in the little white meet- 
ing house on the hill at Oakham. The whole town was there, 
each for his own reason, men and women who came for causes 
unknown to the rest; also, friends from distances, colleagues 
and associates. The day was bitterly cold, the wind sweeping 
over the hills in piercing blasts. Raymond Culver, Henry W. 
Hobson, the local minister Mr. Pinney, and George Stewart 
took brief parts in the last service in the little church around 
which had centered much of his highest devotion. The mem- 
bers of the baseball team with whom he had played on the 
Green bore him to the carriage and to the grave beneath the 
pines in the valley. The Boy Scouts attended in a body and 
stood at salute at the grave. In spite of the zero weather, 
many of the men bared their heads during the committal 
service. 

So the faithful shepherd went home bringing his sheep in 
his hand. 'The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God. 


INDEX 


A 


Abbott, Lyman, 19 

Acts, book of, 59 

Adam, John Douglas, Paul in Every- 
day Life, 135 

fEschylus, 16, 157 (see also Classics) 

Agricola and Germania of Tacitus, 38 

Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 91 

Alabama, University of, 88, 92 

Alexander, Charles M., 160 

Ancient history (see Roman history) 

Anfdnge der Roemischen Geschicht- 
schreibung, Die, by Wilhelm 
Soltau, 52 

Angier, Bernice, 131, 133 

Angus, Addison, 103, 107 

Apology of Plato, 38 

Appian Way, 59 

Aristophanes, 16 

Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 1 

Ashburnham, 175 

Association Record at Yale, 23 

Athletics, at Yale (see Yale Univer- 
sity, athletics at) 

organization of, in Oakham, 97-109, 

132 

Atkins, Gaius Glenn, 225 


B 


Bacon, Prof. Benjamin Wisner, 46, 
48, 237 

Bailey, Prof. William B., 204 

Baker, Newton D., 172 

Balbridge, H. Malcolm, 121 

Baldwin, Prof. Charles Sears, 11 

Baldwin, Philip, 107 

Bates College, 89 

Barnes, Rev. William D., 49, 138, 178, 
191, 193 

Battell Chapel (see Yale University, 
Battell Chapel) 


Beach, Harlan P., 77 

Beecher, Henry Ward, quoted, 4 

Bell, Enoch, 17 

Benét, William Rose, quoted, 173 

Berea College, 86 

Berger, W.) HB. iT 

Bergthold, G. W., 91, 92 

Berkeley Association, 23 

Berkeley Premium, Wright wins, 10 

Berlin, University of, 56 

Bernhardt, Louis, 47, 73, 101, 119 

Bethlehem, Conn., 200 

Bible study groups, Wright’s, viii, 11, 
22, 17, 27, 37, 41, 43-45, 49, 54, 
56, 61, 63, 67, 74, 76, 77, 84, 89, 
109, 111-116, 204, 218 

Biglow, Kenneth, 165 

Bingham, Hiram, 17 

Bird, Philip S., 178 

Black Mountain, conferences at, 67 

Blue Ridge, N. C., conferences at, 67, 
81 

Booth, Robert C., 185 

Borden, William J., 47, 49 

Bosworth, Dean, of Oberlin, 63, 230 

Bowman, Morgan H., 105 

Boynton, Dr., 45 

Bridgeman, Rev. H. A., 225 

Bridgeport, Conn., 37, 41, 43 

Briggs, Albert, 124 

Brockman, Fletcher, 19 

Brooks, Phillips, quoted, 35 

Brown, Dean Charles R., 92, 128-129, 
154, 160, 169, 201, 202, 212, 225, 
237, 238 (see also Yale Divinity 
School) 

Brown University, 89 

Buchman, Frank N. D., 72, 74, 75, 76, 
81, 82, 84, 110, 205, 213, 221-223 

Buehler, Mr., 68 

Burns, William J., 119 

Burr, Aaron, quoted, 34 

Burt, Martha Elizabeth, 6-7, 70-71 


241 


242 


Bush, Prescott, 211 

Bushnell, Horace, 165 

Bushnell, Winthrop, 232 

Butts, G. W., 27 

Byers Hall (see Yale 
Byers Hall) 

Byers, Mr. and Mrs., 21, 28 


University, 


Cc 


Camp Devens, 123, 137, 138, 139, 160, 
169, 173-199 

Camp Gordon, 138, 139, 181 

Camp Upton, 195 

“Campaign of Plataea,” 
pages from, 14, 15 

Campbell, Charles S., 47, 89, 151, 152, 
181, 212, 213, 214, 228 

Campbell, E. Fay, 228 

Campbell, William, 77, 83 

Carman, Bliss, “Men of the Great 
Triune,”’ 194 

Case Against the Little White Slaver, 
The, by Henry Ford, 109 

Catholics, Wright’s attitude toward, 
100, 107 

Chandler, Dr., 51 

Changsha, China, 54 (see also Yale 
University, Mission in China) 

Chalmers, Dwight, 92 

Chaplin, Maxwell, 151, 154, 155 

Cherry Hill, Conn., 201 

China (see Yale University, Mission 
in China) 

Chism, Capt. Murray, 118, 228 

Choate School, 118 

Christian Student Movement, 19, 66, 
78 

Church of Christ in Yale College, 8 

Church of the Redeemer, New Haven, 
233 

Classics, place in Yale curriculum, 10 

Wright tutor of Latin and Greek at 
Yale, 35-38 
Wright’s study of, 13-16, 20, 33, 34, 

35-41, 52-54, 103, 157 

Clement, Mrs. S. M., 202 

Clement, Stewart, 202 

Clemson College, 88, 89 

Cloud, Henry, 47 

Cochran, Mrs., 28 


facsimile 


Index 


Cochrane, F. W., 17 
Coe, Albert, 218 
Coffin, Henry Sloane, 17, 21, 213, 215- 
Q17 
Colosseum, Roman, 59 
College Church, New Haven, 233 
Colleges, Wright’s work among, 66-94 
(see also individual colleges) 
Colton, E. T., 232 
Columbus, Ohio, 87 
Conferences, Wright’s work at, 66-94 
(see also individual confer- 
ences) 
“Coming of the Plague at Athens,” 
Thucydides, 193 
“Community, The,” by Lindeman, 128 
Connecticut Hall, 49 
Constantinople, Wright’s visit in, 63 
Corinthians I, 6:12, 31, 160 
i; 8:13, Si 
I, 9:19, 31, 161 
I, 12: 28-31, 161 
I, 13, 103 
II, 1:20, 84 
Cornell University, 81 
Cornish, “Doc,” 208 
Crescent, the, high school paper, 9 
Crito, 38 
Culver, Benjamin F., 142 
Culver, Josephine, 123, 147 
Culver, Raymond B., 83, 86, 92, 108, 
110, 118, 121, 128, 131, 188, 137, 
138, 141, 158, 238, 240 
Cummings, Henry, 107 
Cunningham, Oliver B., 165, 211 
Curran, Henry, 162 
Curry, Prof. A. Bruce, 89 
Cutten, Rev. George B., 20 


D 


Dallas, John, 180 

Dalzell, Harold A., 73 
Dartmouth College, 81, 89 
Davidson College, 91 
Davis, Lawrence C., 178 
Dawson, W. J., 44 

Day, Dwight H., 17 

Day, Sherwood, 46, 221 
de Anguera, H. C., 178 
De Witt, William, 83, 213 


Index 


“Declining Villages of America, The,” 
128 

Delbriick, 57 

Delta Kappa Epsilon, Wright’s elec- 
tion to, 16 

Denégre, Capt. Bayne, 208 

Desert Evening News, Salt Lake City, 
227 

Dickie, Dr., 57 

Divinity School, Yale (see Yale Uni- 
versity) 

Dodge, M. J., 17 

Dowd, A. G., 102 

Drink and Be _ Sober, 
Thompson, 224 

Drummond, Henry, viii, 23, 33, 67, 
216, 219 

Duncan, Prof. G. M., 17 

Duryee, Samuel Sloane, 211 

Dwight Hall (see Yale University, 
Dwight Hall) 


by Vance 


E 


Ecclesiastes, 11:1, 114 

Eckhoff, Pastor, 66 

Eddy, Brewer, 50, 107, 184 

Eddy, Mrs. Dana, 107 

Eddy, Sherwood, 81, 84, 90, 106, 152, 
153, 181, 193, 213-215, 216, 221, 
223 

Education for Christian Service, 237 

Edward, R. H., 27 

Edwards, Jonathan, church of, 11 

Elliott, A. J., 71, 74, 76, 213 

Elliott, A. R., 92, 93 

Ellis, William F., 119 

Ennius, 53 (see also Classics) 

Erskine College, 88, 91 

Estes Park, conferences at, 67, 206 

Euripides, 16 (see also Classics) 

Europe, Wright’s travels in, 55-60, 62- 
64 


European history, Wright’s course in, 
41 

Evans, Thomas, 23, 151 

Exemption from war service, Wright’s 
attitude on, 170-172 

Exner, Dr., The Rational Sex Life 
for Men, 109 

Exodus 3:11, 116 


243 


F 


Fairfax, Capt., 195 
“Faithful Unto Death,” by Sir E. J. 
Poynter, 130, 141 
Farmer, Eugene, 220 
Farmington, Conn., 213 
Federal Council of Churches of Christ 
in America, 229 
Ferry, J. F., 27 
Fisher, Herbert, 9 
Fisher, Irving, 109 
Fisher, Samuel H., 27, 28 
Ford, Henry, The Case Against the 
Little White Slaver, 109 
Foreign missions, 41 (see also Japan; 
Yale University, Mission in 
China) 
Forum, Roman, 59 
Fosdick, Harry Emerson, 217-218 
Meaning of Prayer, 135 
France, Wright’s trips to, 62-64 
Fraternities, Wright’s, Delta Kappa 
Epsilon, 16 
Gamma Delta Psi, 9 
his attitude towards, 30, 210 
French, Wright’s study of, 62 
Fries, Karl, 66 
Furman University, 90, 91 


G 


Gallaudet, Herbert, 17, 162 

Gamma Delta Psi fraternity, New 
Haven high school, 9 

General War-Time Commission of the 
Churches, 229 

Genesis 18:14, 114 

Georgia, University of, 88, 92 

Georgia Institute of Technology, 88 

German, Wright’s study of, 55-58, 61, 
62 

Germany, Wright’s feelings toward, 
150 

Wright’s trips to, 56-59, 63 

Geschichte des Altertums, by Eduard 
Meyer, 58 

Gilbert, F. M., 24 

Gilkey, Charles, 77 

Gillette, “Rural Sociology,” 128 

Gleaton, Munsey, 126 


24:4 


Gordon, Dr. George A., 55 

Gould, Lyttleton C. B., 211 

Graduate School, Yale (see Yale Uni- 
versity ) 

Greece, Wright’s visit to, 59-60 

Greek (see Classics) 

Grenoble, University of, 62 

Groton School, 117, 184 

Gunsaulus, Dr., 160 

Gurley, Alvin B., 77, 83, 123, 131, 137 


H 


Hammett, Buell, 165 

Hankey, Donald, 4 Student in Arms, 
165 

Hannibal, 38 (see also Classics) 

Hanover (Germany), Wright in, 56 

Harkness, Edward S., 212 

Harrington, General Sir Charles H., 
141 

Hartford, Conn., 51, 52 

Hartford Theological Seminary, 152, 
154, 205 

Harvard University, 103 

rivalry with Yale athletics, 77 

Harvey, Edwin, 61, 62, 101, 105, 106 

Haughton, Percy, 208 

Hay, John, Jim Bludso of the Prairie 
Bell, 155-157 

Hayward, Ernest, 63, 102, 103, 106, 
123 

Hayward, Joseph W., 55 

Hayward, Josephine Lemira (Mrs. 
Henry B. Wright), 50-51, 55, 
56, 59, 61, 62, 71, 74, 87, 123, 
130-149 

Hayward, Walter, 182, 183, 187 

Hearne, Edward, 178, 187, 196 

Hedden, Ernest, 80 

Henderson, “History of Germany,” 58 

Herodotus, 38, 53 (see also Classics) 

Herrick, Rev. Samuel E., 20 

Higham, Capt. David, 141 

Hillhouse high school, 8-9 

Hinkey, Frank, 208 

History (see European, Roman His- 
tory) 

“History of Germany,” by Henderson, 

58 


Index 


Hobson, Henry W., 80, 83, 110, 165, 
213, 214, 240 

Hoffman, Conrad, Jn_ the 
Camps of Germany, 224 

Hoffmire, Arthur, 178, 187, 192, 194, 
195, 198, 238 

Hogan, Jim, 208 

Holden, Amory J., 96 

Holland, N. C., 17 

Hollister, conferences at, 67 

Holtzendorf, Preston, 92 

Homer, 38, 59 (see also Classics) 

Hooker, Brian, quoted, 10 

Horace, 37, 38 (see also Classics) 

Hotchkiss School, 49, 67, 68, 86, 112, 
113, 134 

Houghton, Rev. Roy M., 233 

Howard, James, 46, 213 

Howe, Arthur, 213 

Howe, F. L., 159, 162 

Huer, Leroy, 127, 142 

Hughlings-Jackson law, 223 

Hume, Robert A., 8 

Hurrey, Charles D., 81 

Huston, Mr. and Mrs., 75, 76 

Hutchins, Prof. William J., 86 

Hyde, T. R., 213, 228 


Prison 


I 

Iliad, 103 

In the Prison Camps of Germany, by 
Conrad Hoffman, 224 

Incarnation of Truth, The, 69 

Indianapolis, Student Volunteer Con- 
vention, 238 

Influenza epidemic, Camp Devens, 192 

International Committee of Y.M.C.A. 
(see Y.M.C. A.) 

Interracial Conference, 88 

Irving, Washington, “Life of Chris- 
topher Columbus,” 201 

Italian, Wright’s study of, 61 

Italy, Wright’s visit to, 59, 63 


J 


James, William, 34 

Japan, Wright invited to, 37 
Jefferson, E. F., 49, 213 
Jefferson, Rev. Charles E., 20 
Jeffery, Jessie M., 142 


Index 


Jeremiah 1:8, 116 
32:17, 114 
Jerome, Mr., 122 
Jerry McAuley Mission, 47 
Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle, by 
John Hay, 155-157 
John 7:17, 18 
I, 3:21, 22 
Johnson, J. E., 88, 90, 92 
Johnson, Prof. Allen, 234 
Joshua 24:15, 130 
Journal Courier, New Haven, quoted, 
189-190, 233 
Juvenal, 38 (see also Classics) 


K 


Kansas City, Quadrennial Conference, 
210 

Keogh, Dr. Andrew, 205 

King, E. B., 17 

Knapp, Forest, 126 

Kuling Conference, 222 

Kunkel, Prof. B. W., 32 


L 


Lafayette University, 83 

Lake Forest, Ill., Y. M.C. A. summer 
school, 73-74, 87 

Lake Geneva, Conference, 70 

Lake Placid School, 101, 142 

Larsen, Emma, 123, 142 

Latin (see Classics) 

Latourette, Kenneth, 49, 140, 145, 189, 
200, 202, 214 

Lawless, Lawrence Earle, 125, 131-133, 
137, 138, 139-141, 195 

Lawrence, Bishop, 160 

“Life of Christopher Columbus,” by 
Washington Irving, 201 

Life with a Purpose, A, by Henry B. 
Wright, 55 

Lily Valley Conference, 222 

Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 230 

Dean Brown’s lecture on, 128, 129, 

160 

Lincoln, Converse, 178 

Lindeman, “The Community,” 128 

Lindsay, Judge Ben, 197 


245 


Liquor question, Yale alumni stand 
on, 226 

Livius Geschichtswerk, by Wilhelm 
Soltau, 53 

Livy, 37, 38, 53, 58 (see also Classics) 

Lloyd, Bishop, 160 

Lovell, Dr. George, 125 

Lovett, Sidney, 43, 213 

Lowell, James Russell, quoted, 117 

Luke 19:1-10, 113 

Lum, Herman, 79, 81, 180 

Lusitania, the, 158 

Lyman, Dr. David R., 202 


M 


MacLaren, Ian, pseud, (see Watson, 
Rey. John) 

Magee, John, 47, 49 

Mahan, Edward, 208 

Maine, University of, 89 

Malcom, Herbert, 101, 103, 105, 106, 
107, 118, 124 

Mallory, C. H., 214 

Martial, 38 (see also Classics) 


Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
81 
Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy, 89 
Matthew 5: 13-16, 115 
9:29, 84 


14: 25-32, 112 

Matthews, Neilson, 114 

McAndrews, E. O., 178 

McBurney, Robert, 19 

McCance, William H., 168, 228 

McCarthy, Joe, 184 

McCurdy, John, 159 

McDowell, Bishop, 90 

McKee, Elmore M., 168-169, 218, 228 

McKenzie, Prof., 61 

McKenzie, Rev. Alexander, 20 

McLaue, T. S., 17 

Meaning of Prayer, by Harry Emer- 
son Fosdick, 135 

Medical School, Yale (see Yale Uni- 
versity ) 

“Men of the Great Triune,” by Bliss 
Carman, 194 

Mendell, Clarence, 38 

Mercer, Fred, 75, 76 


246 


Merriam, G. R., 178 
Metzdorf, A. E., 178 
Meyer, Eduard, 56 
Geschichte des Altertums, 58 
Middlebury College, 89 
Miller, Francis, 79, 81 
Mims, “Sidney Lanier,” 209, 210 
Mission, Jerry McAuley (see Jerry 
McAuley) 
Yale Hope (see Yale University, 
Hope Mission) 
Yale in China (see Yale University, 
mission in China) 
Missouri, University of, 93 
Modern languages, Wright’s study of, 
55-58, 61-62 
Moody, Dwight L., 1, 18, 20, 21, 26, 
32, 33, 204, 239 (see also North- 
field Conferences) 
Moody, Paul, 22 
Moody, William R., 225 
Morse, Alfred, 26, 103 
Morse, Richard C., 19, 20, 28, 30, 227 
Mott, John L., 205 
Mott, John R., 19, 22-25, 30, 37, 41, 
45, 66, 81, 82, 110, 169, 171, 172, 
204, 205, 214, 216, 238 
Mullally, Mandeville, 17 


N 


Nevius, 53 (see also Classics) 

National War Work Council 
XY. MS ClAD 

New England colleges, 78-79, 81, 89 
(see also individual colleges) 

New Haven high school, 8 

Niebuhr, of Paris, 53 

North Carolina State College, 91 

North Carolina, University of, 91 

Northfield Conferences, 18, 19, 20, 24, 
26, 29, 32, 47, 49, 66, 67, 70-72, 
76-78, 86, 100, 108, 123, 181, 229 
(see also Moody, Dwight L.) 

Noyes, Morgan P., 80, 83, 213 


O 


Oakam, Mass., viii, 4, 7, 8, 43, 51, 84, 
95-129, 131, 132, 137, 138, 142, 
147, 169, 188, 195, 204, 232, 237, 
240 

Oakham Herald, 96 


(see 


Index 


Oberlin College, 86 
Odyssey, 38 

Oklahoma University, 93 
Olsen, Bert, 211 
Orestiad, 157 

Orr, Dr., 178 


ie 


Pacifism, Wright’s attitude toward, 
151, 230, 231 


Pacuvius, 53 (see also Classics) 

Palmer, Frederick, The World To- 
morrow, 230 

Palmer, Joseph, 178 

Park, J. Edgar, 225 

“Parsifal,” 136 

Pastor and Modern Missions, The, 41 

Patton, Cornelius H., 225 

Paul in Everyday Life, by John 
Douglas Adam, 135 

Peck, W. W., 178 

Pennsylvania State College, 70, 71, 
74, 76, 79, 81, 82, 83 

Pennsylvania, University of, 114 

Perkins, E. C., 18 

Perrin, Prof. Bernadotte, 13, 16, 20, 
37, 38, 52, 53 

Pershing, General, 123 

Personal Evangelism Among Stu- 
dents, 228 

Peterson, M. F., 178 

Phaedo, 38 

Phelps, Dryden, 220 

Philadelphia Public Ledger, quoted, 
DO, 

Phillips, Prof. Andrew W., 68 

Phillips University, 93 

Philosophical Oration list, Wright on, 
17 

Pierrel, Gren O., 178 

Pinney, Rev., 240 

Plato, 37, 38, 59, 
Classics ) 

Plattsburg, Camp, 87, 123, 137, 150- 
172, 174, 179 

Pliny, 38, 58 (see also Classics) 

Plumb, Rev. Albert H., 119 

Polybius, 58 (see also Classics) 

Porter, David R., 82 

Porter, General Horace, quoted, 31 

Porter, Pres., of Yale, 6 


157 (see also 


Index 


Poynter, Sir E. J., “Faithful Unto 
Death,” 130, 141 

Practice of Friendship, The, by 

Henry B. Wright, 180-183 
Bela, “The School Boy of 

1850,” 175 

Praxiteles, 59 

Price, Frank, 205 

Princeton University, 23, 83, 153, 154 

Prizes, won by Wright, 10-11 

“Prometheus Bound,” 16 

Puritanism, in Wright’s early home, 7 


Pratt, 


R 


Rational Sex Life for Men, The, by 
Dr. Exner, 109 

Recovery of a Lost Roman Tragedy, 
The, by Henry B. Wright, 36, 
52, 60 

Reed, Bert, 104, 107 

Religious Education Association, 84 

Reynolds, James B., 19, 28, 29 

Rich, Erma, 142 

Rich, Jr., G. B., 17 

Richards, Howard, 101 

“Right to Fight,” by Sherwood Eddy, 
193 

Robbie, Kenneth, 178, 180 

Robins, Raymond, 81, 85 

Robinson, Lucius F., Latin Prize, 10 

Rodgers, J. O., 18 

Roe, John, 47 

Rogers, J. S., 17 

Roman history, Wright’s course in at 
Yale, 38 

notes on, 39, 40 

Romans 8: 38-39, 85 

Rome, Wright’s visit to, 59-60 

Rood, Chester, 146-147 

Rosset, Prof., 63 

Rudin, Arthur, 125, 140 

“Rural Sociology,” by Gillette, 128 

Rutgers College, 83 


S 


St. Mark’s School, 75 

St. Paul, 59 

Sallmon, William H., 17, 28 
Satires of Horace, 38 


247 


Schmidt, Eric, 57 

“School Boys of 1850,” by Bela Pratt, 
175 

Scholarships, won by Wright, 10-11 

Schultz, E. B., 92 

Seabeck, conferences at, 67 

Service with Fighting Men, 224 

Seventy-Sixth Division, 138, 174 

Seymour, Prof. Thomas Day, 8 

Shakespeare, 56, 95 

Shedd, Clarence P., 82 

Sheffield Scientific School (see Yale 
University ) 

Sheldon, Ernest, 47, 52, 61, 76 

Shelley, quoted, 95 

Shepard, Lorin, 77 

Shevlin, Tom, 207 

Shoemaker, Samuel M., 87 

“Sidney Lanier,’ by Mims, 209, 210 

Silver Bay Conferences, 67, 87, 89, 90 

Simpson, Kenneth S., 211 

Simsbury, Conn., 117 

Skull and Bones, 13, 16 

Slade, William F., 178 

Sloane, William, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 212 

Smith, Charles, of Hubbardston, 107 

Smith, George Adam, 6, 20 

Smith, Rev. Charles H., of Barre, 125 

Smith, Robert Seneca, 49 

Smithson, Monta C., 88, 123, 141 

Sneath, Prof. E. Hershey, 92, 202, 
203, 212 . 

Social problems, Wright’s views on, 
31, 50-51, 90, 224 

Soldiers of Oakham in the Great War, 
by Henry B. Wright, 105, 111, 


125 

Soltau, Wilhelm, Die <Anfdnge der 
Roemischen Geschichtschrei- 
bung, 52 


Livius Geschichtswerk, 53 

Sophocles, 16, 157 

South, the, Wright’s visit to colleges, 
88, 90, 91-94, 145 

South Carolina, University of, 91 

Southwest, Wright’s visit to, 92-94 

Speer, Robert E., 19, 23, 25, 157, 161, 
164, 165, 193, 197 

Sperry, Willard, 225 

Sports (see Athletics) 

Stearns, Alfred E., 225 


248 


Stebbins, D., 28 

Stebbins, E. A., 27 

Stephenson, Fred, 178, 194 

Stewart, George, ix, 110, 119, 121, 
169, 211, 214, 238, 240 

Stewart, Margaret, Anne, 123, 131, 
133, 137, 138, 141 

Stillman, George H., 211 

Stokes, Anson, 28, 211 

Stone, George W., 104 

“Stover at Yale,” 211 

Student conferences (see various con- 
ferences) 

Student in Arms, A., by Donald Han- 
key, 165 

Student Volunteer Movement, 24, 215 

Students’ attitude toward Wright, 37 

“Student’s Manual,” by John Todd, 
viii, 11 

Super, Paul, 178 

Swan, Dean, 158 

Swift, Walker, 83 


T 


Tacitus, 37, 38 (see also Classics) 

Taft, William Howard, 226 

Taggart, Joseph, 126 

Tap Day, at Yale, 16, 31 

Ten Eyck Prize, Wright wins, 11 

Tennessee, University of, 88, 92 

Tewksbury, E. G. and Gardner, 222 

Texas Christian University, 93 

Texas, University of, 93 

Thach, Steve, 184 

Thayer, Dr., 160 

Thompson, Vance, 
Sober, 224 

Thompson, Dr. W. H., 38 

Three Hundred and Twenty-fifth In- 
fantry, 125 

Thucydides, “Coming of the Plague 
at Athens,” 193 

Thurston, Lawrence, 54-55 

Timothy I, 6: 17-19, 113 

Titus 1: 6-8, 116 

Tobyhanna, Pa., 123 

Todd, John, “Student’s Manual,” viii, 
11 

Tuskegee Institute, 88, 145 


Drink and Be 


Index 


Tutor, Wright as, of Latin and Greek 
at Yale, 35-38 

Tweedy, Henry Hallam, 225 

Twichell, David, 17 

Two Centuries of Christian Activity 
at Yale, 28-29 


U 


“Uncle John Vassar,” biography of, 
188 

University of Maine, 81 

University of Pennsylvania, 84 

Uphaus, Willard E., 126 

Urice, Jay, 178 


V 


Vadstena, Sweden, 66 
Vanderbilt University, 88 
Vaughan, Henry, quoted, 150 
Vermont, University of, 89 
Versailles Conference, 196 
Virginia, University of, 91, 103 
von Bernsdorff, Count, 158 

von Bermuth, William S., 121, 122 
von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 57 
Vorhis, Capt. Larry, 72 
Vreeland, Harold S., 77, 83, 213 


WwW 


Wagner, Richard, 56, 136 

Wakefield, Gilbert, 12 

Walter, Howard, 205 

Ware, E. T., 17 

Ware, Raymond, 194 

Warren, Bill, 77 

Washington and Lee University, 79, 
88, 92 

Waterbury, Conn., 41, 43 

Watson, Rev. John, 20 

Webb, Arthur, 127 

Weber, Fred, 198 

Webster Debating Club, 9 

“Wednesdays at Five” meetings, 46, 
AT 

Welles, Kenneth B., 48 

Wesleyan University, 85, 117 

Wheeler, Biff, 201 

White, Fred G., 178 


Index 


Whitinsville, 103 
Whyte, Alexander, 203 
Wickes, Forsyth, 17 
Wilder, Amos P., 19, 233 
Wilder, Robert P., 19, 158, 198, 215 
Will of God and a Man’s Life Work, 
The, by Henry B. Wright, 61, 
72, 221, 239 
William Jewell College, 93 
Williams, A. B., 17, 18 
Williams College, 78, 80, 81, 85, 89 
Haystack movement, 78 
Williams, James, 194 
Williamstown Conference, 78-79, 80, 
213 
Wilson, Alexander, 208 
Wilson, Henry E., 88 
Wilson, Stitt, 89, 90 
Wilson, Woodrow, 151, 158 
Winship, Harold, 184 
Winthrop Prize, Wright wins, 11 
Wishard, Luther, 66 
Wofford College, 90, 91 
Wood, Annabel, 123, 131, 133, 137, 
138, 142 
Wood, Howard A., 142 
Wood, Leonard, 91, 110, 123, 126, 142 
Wood, Walter, 142 
Woolsey Scholarship, Wright wins, 10 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 81 
Worcester Telegram, 104, 126 
World Tomorrow, The, by Frederick 
Palmer, 230 
World War, 123, 125, 139, 141, 154, 
196 (see also various Army 
camps) 
“World’s Fair Comedy of Errors,” 9 
World’s Student Christian Federation, 
41, 63, 66 
Wright, Alfred, 7, 26, 96, 145-146 
Wright, Henry B., birth and parent- 
age, 6 
early life, 6-9 
student at Yale, 10-18 
secretary of Y. M. C. A., Yale, 19- 
34 
tutor of Latin and Greek at Yale, 
35-38 
Assistant Professor of Roman His- 
tory and Literature at Yale, 38- 
65 


249 


Wright, Henry B., marriage and home 

life, 55, 130-149 

work at colleges and conferences, 
66-94 

work for Oakham, 95-129 

chief of religious work at Platts- 
burg, 158-169 

director of _ religious 
Devens, 169-194 

professor in Yale Divinity School, 
200-240 

death, 237 

the man, 1-5 

writings (see Soldiers of Oakham 
in the Great War; Practice of 
Friendship, The; Recovery of 
a Lost Roman Tragedy, The; 
Will of God and a Man’s Life 
Work, The) 

Wright, Henry Parks, 6-7, 96, 187- 

191, 205, 218 


work at 


Y 


Yale University, athletics at, 16, 35, 
49, 73, 77, 108, 207-208 
alumni stand on liquor question, 226 
Battell Chapel, 7, 24, 29, 100, 188, 
238, 239 

Berkeley Association, 23 

Bicentennial, 27-28 

Byers Hall, 21, 34, 154, 210, 238 

Christian Association, 17, 19, 23, 27, 

29, 67, 80, 210, 211, 215 (see 
also subhead, Dwight Hall) 

Church of Christ in, 8 

Courant, 209 

Daily News, 227 

delegation to Northfield confer- 

ences (see Northfield Confer- 
ences ) 

Divinity School, Centennial, 126 
Dean Brown (see Brown, Dean) 
Education for Christian Service, 

237 
Wright at, 65, 200-240 
Dwight Hall, 18, 21, 23, 24, 30, 31, 
32, 34, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 
210, 211, 214, 216, 228, 238 
evangelistic meetings, 20, 22-25 
fraternities at, 16, 30, 210 


250 


Yale University, Graduate School, 19, 
35. 
Hope Mission, 47, 73 
Law School, 158 
Medical School, 22 
mission in China, 41, 43, 54, 200, 
221-223 
Sheffield Scientific School, 21, 30 
(see also subhead above, Byers 
Hall) 
Tap Day (see Tap Day) 
Wright, Henry B., at, student, 10- 
18 
secretary Y. M. C. A., 19-34 
Tutor of Latin and Greek, 35-38 
Assistant Professor of Roman 
History and Literature, 38-65 
Professor in Divinity School, 200- 
240 
Wright, Henry Parks, first Dean 
of, 6 (see also Wright, Henry 
Parks) 
Y. M. C. A., 19-34, 43-45, 48, 207 
Y. M. C. A., and World War, 152-154, 
170-172 


son Wee ee" 


Index 


Y. M. C. A., Army, 123, 187, 159, 164, 


166, 168, 170 (see also various 
Army camps) 

Bridgeport, Conn., 43 

College, Springfield, 166 

courses on, in Yale Divinity School, 
204 

Employed Officers’ Conference, 86 

International Committee, 21, 25, 80, 
83, 153, 154, 231 

Lake Forest summer school, 73-74, 
87 

National War Work Council, 137, 
158, 172 

New Haven, 231 

Student Department, 92 

Training Group Bulletin, 93 

Triennial Conference of Paid Col- 
lege Secretaries, 73 

Waterbury, Conn., 43 


Yale (see Yale University, 
Y. M. C. A.) 
Z 


Zimmerman note, 158 


eas 


can 
TE Ae 


ae Bea) 


Pi hy fb 


hie i Hh hid 


. Le | 
f Nie ay 


ate as 


Ma) 
7 ne aie aN 
ok R 


‘ 
\ 


ba) a 
A ya 


iy, 


74. ae : 


Nad A Pa eang ‘) at 


> + 


Miers 
ih A a 


oy “bh 
an rt 


bit hs ne 
Ai a ve ‘ 


nae 


RAG ie 4 





ew At) wi 
| it Lae 
: Pe, \ i ong ul af 


iin 
Wil 
? 


Ney 





a 
Wr ate 


spat | ; t Mes ; 
WT es ¥ 
le hiniae 


7 : v 
Ae f Ay 
ee Tio. 





Date Due 





“ue ce. 


TV | 


Seer ae 


— 
“J 


it 
Me 


SS 


he 
aa 





UI a 


Seminary-Speer Library , 


D 


WSS 


~ 
\\\ \ 
WS \ SS \ MARR MH 
XX" RX 
~ Y SY “ SY 
\ A NK AQ 
\ \\ A \ IQ RMN SY WY SN 
AN WS LAY 
ANY 
\ SS ‘ SS \ 
RAGQ@Q Wg 
ACK 
SAN SS 


» 
IAN 


\ 


SY 


\ 


\\ 


. 
AN » WY SS 
A 
AC 
\ AK 


\ 
\ 


J 
z 
oe 


SN AX 





